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Friday 23 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 ...
Green Legend Ran
Japanese Original Video Animation (OVA) (1992-1993; vt The Green Legend). AIC. Directed by Satoshi Saga. Written by Yu Yamamoto. Voice cast includes Takeshi Aono, Michio Hazama, Hidehiro Kikuchi and Mitsuki Yayoi. Three 45-51 minute films. Colour. / The Earth, brought to the brink of Disaster by Pollution, is visited by the Rodo, Aliens whose ...
Secret Agent "X"
US Pulp Magazine. Published by Periodical House Inc, an imprint of Ace Magazines. Editors were Rose Wyn for the first few years, then Harry Widmer for the remainder of the run. Publication varied from monthly to an erratic bimonthly schedule. 41 issues from February 1934 to March 1941, initially with "X" in quotation marks and cover subtitle "The Man of a Thousand Faces"; from #20 (November 1935) as Secret Agent X without quotes and ...
Gavin, Jamila
(1941- ) Indian-born children's author in UK from the early 1950s, prolific in several genres since she began publishing in 1979. Of sf interest are Ali and the Robots (1986), a not particularly challenging tale involving Robots, and the more ambitious The Wormholers (1996), an Alternate Cosmos tale. [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 ...