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Friday 20 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. ...
Skunks, Major
Pseudonym of the unidentified UK-based author (? -? ) of The Great Battle of Patchumup, Fought off Cape Keepumover, June 1st, in the Year of the Three Naughts (1865), a spoofish Future War tale involving exorbitant Weapons, Android soldiers, new species of Homo sapiens, and so forth. [JC]
Lovejoy, Jack
(1937-2014) US author with an advanced degree in Roman history who began publishing work of genre interest with The Rebel Witch (1978), a fantasy for children. His first sf novels, Star Gods (dated 1978 but 1979) and The Hunters (1982), combine Space Opera routines with some cultural extrapolation. The Vision of Beasts sequence – Creation Descending (1984), The Second Kingdom ...
Genius Party
A two-volume Japanese Original Video Animation (OVA) anthology series produced by Studio 4°C, who also created the Sweat Punch OVA anthology. The director/writer is shown in brackets after each segment title. / 1. Genius Party (2007). / Comprising seven short films, 102 minutes in total. Colour. / Genius Party (Atsuko Fukushima). In a strange desert a shaman in bird guise interacts with egg-shaped skulls. After some ...
Carter, Lauren
(1972- ) Canadian author whose first novel, the Near-Future Dystopian Swarm (2013), which is set at a time after fossil fuels have finally been depleted, follows its protagonist on a dangerous hegira into a ruined City for provender; her return to something like primordial wilderness, which in some narrative traditions might signal the ...
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 ...