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Sunday 22 June 2025
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.
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Forsyth, Frederick
(1938-2025) UK author who gained fame with his first novel, The Day of the Jackal (1971), and whose books are generally political thrillers. The Shepherd (1975 chap), however, is a sentimental Timeslip or ghost fantasy in which a pilot on Christmas Eve 1957 is saved from crashing by a World War Two pilot in an antique bomber: pilot and plane had been shot down on the Christmas Eve of 1943. ...
Meek, Joe
(1929-1967) UK music producer and composer, famous for creating a distinctive, innovative and influential sound. His lifelong interest in "outer space" resulted in one early concept-album, I hear a new world – an outer space music fantasy by Joe Meek (1960). Set mostly on the moon and concerning aliens called Globbots, Saroos and Dribcots it strives to create sonic landscapes by adding weird sound effects to blues and skiffle songs. But Meek is more famous as a producer and ...
Ghidalia, Vic
(1926-2013) US publicist for ABC TV who in his spare time co-edited eight genre Anthologies with Roger Elwood, from The Little Monsters (anth 1969) to Beware More Beasts (anth 1975). He was also the solo editor of several further anthologies published from 1971 to 1977, as detailed in the Checklist below. [JC/DRL]
Ertz, Susan
(1887-1985) UK author of popular novels, very probably pseudonymous, active for much of the century and perhaps now most famous for one quote from her novel Anger in the Sky (1943): "Millions long for immortality who don't know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon." Her Scientific Romance, Woman Alive (1935), borrows wholesale from John Buchan's The Gap in the Curtain ...
Caprica
US TV series (2009-2011). David Eick Productions for Syfy. Created by Ronald D Moore and Remi Aubuchon for Syfy. Producers include Moore, David Eick, and Jane Espenson. Writers include Moore, Aubuchon, Espenson, Michael Taylor and Michael Angeli. Directors include Moore, Michael Nankin, Wayne Rose, and Roxann Dawson. Cast includes Eric Stoltz as Daniel Graystone, Alessandra Torresani as Zoe Graystone, Esai Morales as Joseph Adama, Polly Walker as ...
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 ...