SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Monday 19 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.
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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 ...
Ivan Vasilievich Changes His Profession
Russian film (1973; original title Ivan Vasilyevich menyaet professiyu; vt Ivan Vasilievich: Back to the Future). Mosfilm. Directed by Leonid Gaidai. Written by Vladlen Bakhnov and Leonid Gaidai, based on the 1935 play Ivan Vasilievich by Mikhail Bulgakov. Cast includes Aleksandr Demyanenko, Leonid Kuravlyov and Yuriy Yakovlev. 88 minutes. Mainly colour. / Engineer Aleksandr "Shurik" Timofeyev ...
Elder, Joseph
(?1933- ) US anthologist who edited The Farthest Reaches: 12 Never-Before-Published Tales of Intergalactic Space (anth 1968) and Eros in Orbit: A Collection of All New Science Fiction Stories about Sex (anth 1973) (see Sex). Contributors to The Farthest Reaches were of generally high calibre, including Brian W Aldiss with "The Worm that Flies", Poul ...
Lumley, Benjamin
(1811-1875) Canadian-born lawyer, entrepreneurial opera manager and author, who wrote at least once as Hermes; in UK from well before 1832, by which point he had permanently changed his surname from Levy. His career in opera, from 1842 to about 1863, was marked by some scandal (not unusual for the context) and his introduction of nearly thirty operas to Britain, including several by Giuseppe Verdi. His career as a novelist began late, with Sirenia; or, Recollections of a Past Existence ...
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 ...