SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Thursday 22 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.
Site updated on 19 January 2026
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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 ...
Grimes, Tom
Working name of Thomas J Grimes (1954- ), US author of two Near Future Satires: City of God (1995) views pre-millennium America as a media-dominated funhouse full of terrors; WILL@epicqwest.com: (A Medicated Memoir) (2003) sends its protagonist through a similarly deranged and deranging Cyberspace in a McGuffin-like quest for ...
Masters of Horror
US tv series (2006-2008). Production companies include IDT Entertainment, Industry Entertainment and Nice Guy Productions for Showtime. Created by Mick Garris. Executive producers include Keith Addis, Morris Berger and Mick Garris. Directors include Joe Dante, Stuart Gordon, Tobe Hooper and Lucky McKee. Writers include Stuart Gordon, Sam Hamm, Sean Hood and Richard Christian Matheson. ...
Hamilton, Lady Mary
(1736-1821) Scottish novelist, active from around 1777. She is a figure of double interest in studies of Gender: her complex biography has in the past aroused more interest (in male scholars) than her actual work; and central to that work is the Feminist Utopia Munster Village (1778 2vols), which gained considerable fame during her lifetime: its second translation into French, as ...
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 ...