SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Sunday 8 February 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 6 February 2026
Sponsor of the day: Paul Giamatti
Sallis, James
(1944-2026) US musician, poet and author, briefly active in New Worlds during its Michael Moorcock-directed New-Wave phase; he began to publish work of genre interest in this context with "Kazoo" (August 1967 New Worlds) and co-edited the magazine 1968-1969. His clearly acknowledged models in the French avant garde and the gnomic brevity of much of his work ...
Malkus, Alida Sims
Working name of US author Lyda Sims Malkus (1888-1976), usually of historical juveniles insubstantially tinged with fantasy; of sf interest is The Dark Star of Itza: The Story of a Pagan Princess (1930), a Lost Race tale set in southern Mexico; a vision of Mayan civilization is intensely and informatively conveyed. [JC]
Alexander, Robert
(? - ) UK author of The Pendulum of Fate: Cosmic Glimpses of Past & Future (coll 1933), a series of cosmic visions divided into three parts: the first an array of Utopias spread across the Solar System; the second a similarly disposed array depicting historical moments, including a glimpse of Atlantis; the third showing a great ...
Sanders, William
(1942-2017) US editor and author, who has also written as by Will Sundown; co-founder with Lawrence Watt-Evans of Helix SF in 2006. The magazine folded in 2008. During his tenure, Sanders became involved in a controversy over intemperate language about Muslims uttered by him in an email he presumed to be a private communication. His first fiction, as by Sundown, was the Pockets of Resistance sequence comprising ...
Diafanoidi Vengono la Morte, I
["The Diafanoidi are Death"] Film (1966; vt I Diafanoidi Portano de Morte; vt The War of the Planets). Mercury Film International/Southern Cross Productions. Directed by Antonio Margheriti credited as Anthony Dawson. Written by Renato Moretti and Ivan Reiner. Cast includes Enzo Fiermonte, Lisa Gastoni, Carol Guistini, Franco Nero, Tony Russel and Linda Sini. 97 minutes. Colour. / On New Year's Eve, after Captain DuBois (Giustini) on Earth is overcome by strange green ...
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 ...