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 ...
Marlowe, Gabriel S
Pseudonym of Austrian-born theatre director, screenwriter and author Gabriel Beer-Hofmann (1901-1971), active from before 1920 in the London scene. As G S Marlowe in the UK and as Gabriel Marlowe in America, he wrote one novel of sf interest, I Am Your Brother (1935), the eponymous sibling being a Monster – a victim of an experiment in Eugenics gone savagely wrong, with an enormous forked tongue and other telling ...
Scieszka, Jon
(1954- ) US author best known for his numerous picture books for younger children, often reworkings of fantasy and folk tale materials [not given in the Checklist below]. He is of sf interest primarily for two series, the Time Warp Trio tales for younger readers, beginning with Knights of the Kitchen Table (1991 chap), in which a mysterious Book serves as a Time Machine, bringing the three young protagonists to a ...
Markov, Georgi
(1929-1978) Bulgarian engineer, screenwriter and author, whose first novel, Pobeditelite na Aiaks: Nauchno-fantastichen roman ["The Conquerors of Ajax"] (1959), which is sf, describes an interstellar expedition to the planet Aiaks [Ajax], in an attempt to recapture meaning for humans after centuries of austere Utopia on Earth. After a difficult career in Communist Bulgaria, Markov came to the UK around 1970, where he wrote commentary for the BBC. For ...
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 ...