SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Thursday 10 July 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 7 July 2025
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Swamp Thing, The
Created by writer Len Wein and artist Berni Wrightson in DC Comics's House of Secrets #92 (July 1971), the Swamp Thing is a Monster whose moss- and muck-encrusted body is formed entirely of vegetable matter. In that original short graphic story, as a result of a scientific "accident" arranged by his jealous assistant Damian Ridge, Dr Alex Olsen is killed and subsequently resurrected in mutated form ...
Gygax, Gary
(1938-2008) US Game designer and author, in the latter capacity almost exclusively of Fantasy novels [see Checklist below]; he also wrote as E Gary Gygax. His importance to sf and allied genres stems from his role in the progression from a Wargame with added fantasy elements – Chainmail (1971 Guidon Games; rev 1972; rev 1975) with Jeff Perren – into the seminal fantasy ...
Harrison, Helga
(1923- ) UK author whose sf novel, The Catacombs (1962), depicts with some irony a Ruined Earth Britain, long after a nuclear World War Three, in which "Crishuns", having persuaded themselves that they warrant special attention, await salvation, while dodging the oppressive Communes, which are governed by a garrulously domineering dictator. [JC]
Invasion of the Star Creatures
Film (1962). Alta Vista Productions, American International Pictures. Produced by Berj Hagopian. Directed by Bruno VeSota. Written by Jonathan Haze based on his original story "Monsters from Nicholson Mesa". Cast includes Robert Ball (credited as Bob Ball), Mark Ferris, Frankie Ray, Dolores Reed and Gloria Victor. 70 minutes. Black and white. / A pair of comically inept US Army soldiers, Privates Philbrick (Ball) and Penn (Ray), are ...
Cristofari, Cécile
(? - ) French teacher and author, active from 2010 or before, who began to publish work of genre interest in English with "Memories Like Bread, Words Like Little White Stones" in Daily Science Fiction for July 2013. Much of her short fiction, some of it set in Near Future France, has been assembled as Elephants in Bloom (coll 2024); the ...
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 ...