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Saturday 5 September 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 31 August 2026
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Murray, Will
Working name of US author William Patrick Murray (1953-2026), who showed an interest throughout his career in Superheroes of the Pulp tradition (on which he was a known authority) such as Doc Savage, about which figure he wrote the nonfiction Secrets of Doc Savage (1981 chap). In this context he had been literary agent for Lester Dent's estate since 1979. ...
Ma, Ling
(1983- ) Chinese-born academic and author, in US from childhood, who began to publish work of genre interest with "Yeti Lovemaking" in Unstuck #2 for 2012, which was published with other variously surreal gonzo Satires as Bliss Montage (coll 2022); its description of lovemaking with a yeti dressed as a human male (see Apes as Human) is chasteningly sharp; "bliss montage" is a term in film ...
God Is An Astronaut
Irish three-piece band, whose instrumental albums generate a spacy, evocative atmosphere non-specifically reminiscent of sf, an effect underscored by their track titles: "Fall from the Stars" on The End of the Beginning (2002), "Infinite Horizons" and "Suicide by Star" on All Is Violent, All Is Bright (2005). The eponymously-titled album God Is an Astronaut (2007) is their most cohesive and emotionally effective, and traces an oblique science-fictional ...
Stapledon, Olaf
(1886-1950) UK author and philosopher, born in the Wirral peninsula near Liverpool, where he spent the greater part of his life. In Waking World (1934) he admitted that he lived "chiefly on dividends and other ill-gotten gains". The name Olaf does not indicate foreign antecedents: his parents had been reading Carlyle's The Early Kings of Norway (coll 1875) when he was born. After studying at Balliol College, Oxford, he worked for a short period without enthusiasm in ...
Jacobi, Carl
(1908-1997) US author; also editor of several journals, including the Minnesota Quarterly, who began publishing work of genre interest with "Mive" in The Minnesota Quarterly for Fall 1928. His insinuatingly evocative short fiction is mainly of horror and fantasy interest, much of it appearing in Weird Tales, though he also produced some sf, mostly Space Opera, and some of his stories invoke enough arcane ...
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 ...