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Friday 16 January 2026
Welcome to the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Fourth Edition. Some sample entries appear below. Click here for the Introduction; here for what we mean by Science Fiction; here for the masthead; here for some Statistics; here for the Acknowledgments; here for the FAQ; here for advice on citations. Find entries via the search box above (more details here) or browse the menu categories in the grey bar at the top of this page.
Site updated on 14 January 2026
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von Däniken, Erich
(1935-2026) Swiss author of a series of purportedly nonfiction books, beginning with Erinnerungen an die Zukunft (1968; trans Michael Heron as Chariots of the Gods? 1969), which, based on a mass of often suspect and internally inconsistent data, argues that the Earth was visited by at least one Alien spacefaring race before and at the dawn of historical time; thus, for example, the Great Pyramid of ...
Adams, Scott
(1957-2026) US author and cartoonist best known for the Dilbert strip published from 1989, which when at its best superbly (in terms of concept and accuracy of Satire rather than quality of drawing) satirized contemporary office life and corporate incompetence. As with most ambitious modern comic strips, it segues frequently into sf and fantasy tropes – such as Robot office workers, wish-fulfilling ...
Quiroule, Pierre
Pseudonym of UK author Walter William Sayer (1892-1982), and also a House Name of the Sexton Blake Library, to which Sayer contributed under that name; it was also used by R Coutts Armour. As Quiroule, Sayer is also credited with The Painted Death (1935), a Lost Race tale featuring Amazons deep in the South American jungle ruled by a queen ...
Wilson, Leah
(1981- ) US editor – often in collaboration – of several popular essay anthologies dealing with genre authors and productions, beginning with the King Kong-related King Kong Is Back!: An Unauthorized Look at One Humongous Ape! (anth 2005) with David Brin. This was followed by a similar treatment of Star Trek in ...
Leivick, H
Working name of Russian composer, journalist and playwright Leivick Halpern (1888-1962), whose language (and identity) was Yiddish; after imprisonment and Siberian exile, he lived in the USA from 1913; his working name was adapted in America to avoid any confusion with the exiled poet Moyshe Leyb-Halpern (1886-1932), also in New York. Of sf interest is his verse drama, published originally in German translation as Der Goylem: A Dramatische Poeme in Akht Bilder (1921; trans J C ...
Clute, John
(1940- ) Canadian critic, editor and author, in the UK from 1969; married to Judith Clute from 1964, partner of Elizabeth Hand since 1996. He began to publish work of genre interest with an sf-tinged poem "Carcajou Lament" in Triquarterly for Winter 1960 [ie Autumn 1959]; he began consistently publishing sf reviews in his "New Fiction" column for the Toronto Star (1966-1967), and later in ...