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Monday 13 April 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 13 April 2026
Sponsor of the day: John Howard
It! the Terror from Beyond Space
Film (1958). Vogue/United Artists. Directed by Edward L Cahn. Written by Jerome Bixby. Cast includes Shawn Smith, Kim Spalding and Marshall Thompson. 69 minutes. Black and white. / In this largely mediocre film there are some good, tense moments. The crew of a Spaceship returning from Mars discover that "something" has stowed away: a Monster which attacks crew ...
Aachi & Ssipak
South Korean animated film (2006). JTeam Studios. Directed by Jo Beom-jin. Written by Kang Sang-kyun, Jeong Hye-won and Jo Beom-jin. Voice cast includes Im Chang-jung, Lee Gyu-hwa, Yang Jeong Hwa, Shin Hae-chul, Seo Hye-jeong, Ryoo Seung-bum and Hyun Young. 90 minutes. Colour. An English version, rewritten and reworked by Ed Skudder and Zack Keller (who also voiced the two main characters), was released in 2014. / The film opens with an army of small ...
Space Wars Heroes
US letter-size saddle-stapled Cinema magazine printed on newsprint. Published by Myron Fass as Stories, Layouts and Press. Editor: probably Jeffrey Goodman. Three bimonthly issues, 1979. / This Fass publication focused somewhat more heavily on Television than its stablemates, covering such programmes as Battlestar Galactica (1978-1979) and The ...
Potts, Stephen W
(1949- ) US author and critic who began to publish work of genre interest with "Mare Somniorum" in New Dimensions 10 (anth 1980) edited by Robert Silverberg, his only published sf story. His book-length criticism includes studies of Arkady and Boris Strugatski in The Second Marxian Invasion: The Fiction of the Strugatsky Brothers (1991) and of J R R ...
Blacker, Terence
(1948- ) UK author, mostly for Young Adult readers and for younger children, active from about 1984; he is best known for his Ms Wiz stories for younger children, and has also written adult novels. Of sf interest is The Angel Factory (2001), in which the young protagonist's parents turn out to be Aliens who have adopted him for reasons not entirely to his liking. [JC]
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 ...