SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Saturday 8 August 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 3 August 2026
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Innes, Michael
Pseudonym used by Scots author and academic J I M Stewart (1906-1994) for his many detective and thriller novels published from 1936 to 1986, often featuring series character John Appleby in various official roles from detective-inspector to Sir John Appleby, Commissioner of Metropolitan Police, and onward through a long, active retirement. Though often fantastical and donnishly whimsical, these tales normally keep sf devices at arm's length or play with them only speculatively. In the ...
Woodcock, John
(1927-2017) UK painter and illustrator, active from around 1945; the colour-dense blocks and patterns of his work usually unpack into symbolic but moderately telling representation; it may seem surprising – given his continuing activity until near his death – that he did not publish more prolifically. All the same he produced covers for several authors with entries in this encyclopedia, including Jocelyn Brooke, Susan ...
Hemry, John G
(1956- ) US author best known for his Military SF sequences. The Stark series, beginning with Starks' War (2000) and ending with Stark's Crusade (2002), features near space conflict in the Near Future. The Paul Sinclair series, beginning with A Just Determination (2003) and ending with Against All Enemies (2006), features an adept legal ...
Dreadstone, Carl
A House Name used for a short-lived 1977 series of six Berkley Medallion paperbacks based on classic Universal Horror films. Known users of the Dreadstone pseudonym are Ramsey Campbell with three titles and Walter Harris with two. The latter's initial contribution – sometimes erroneously credited to Campbell – was a second novel ...
Sayler, Harry Lincoln
(1863-1913) US journalist and author, exclusively of stories for young readers, those of greatest interest being three series involving aviation. Of perhaps most sf interest is the first – Airship Boys sequence beginning with The Airship Boys; or, The Quest of the Aztec Treasure (1909), his authorship ending with The Airship Boys as Detectives; or, Secret Service in Cloudland (1913); a final volume, ...
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 ...