SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Sunday 7 December 2025
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 1 December 2025
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Stoppard, Tom
Working name of Czech-born playwright and screenwriter Tomáš Straussler (1937-2025), in the UK since 1946, the Stoppard surname being acquired from his stepfather when his widowed mother remarried in 1945. His early dramatic work was characterized by extravagant wit and wordplay, and an Absurdist application of logic to surreal or insane situations. Following the broadcast of several Radio plays, his ...
Ripley, Karen
Pseudonym of US author Mary K Urhausen (1948- ) who began publishing work of genre interest with "In Another Land" for If in 1968 as Mary Urhausen, but whose later work is always signed Karen Ripley. It includes the Prisoner of Dreams sequence comprising Prisoner of Dreams (1989) and The Tenth Class (1991), which features the adventures of a female starship-pilot who must cope with repressive authorities and with ...
Scientifiction [fanzine]
1. UK Fanzine published by Walter Gillings from Ilford, Essex, subtitled "The British Fantasy Review". Seven issues, January 1937 to March 1938. Typeset; 5½ x 8½ in. / Scientifiction is sometimes misnamed The British Scientifiction Fantasy Review owing to a front-cover design conceit that wrapped the subtitle around the larger print of the main title; the subtitle appears below on the title ...
Starburst
UK monthly nonfiction Media Magazine about sf, fantasy and horror, primarily in Cinema and Television. Small-Bedsheet slick format. Founded January 1978, first published by Starburst Magazines, London, edited by Dez Skinn, but soon taken over by Marvel Comics and edited Alan Mackenzie until #77 (January 1985), then by Roger P Birchall to ...
Best Science Fiction, The
US Digest-size SF Magazine. Two undated issues, 1964 and 1965, edited by Frederik Pohl and published by Galaxy Publishing Corp of New York. Both issues had subtitles: #1 "From Worlds of If" and #2 "From Worlds of Tomorrow". The stories included were indeed reprints from If and Worlds of Tomorrow respectively. [FHP/DRL]
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 ...