SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Tuesday 10 December 2024
Welcome to the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Fourth Edition. Some sample entries appear below. Click here for the Introduction; here for the masthead; here for 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 9 December 2024
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Christopher, Edgar Earl
(? -? ) US author of The Invisibles (1903), narrated in retrospect from the Near Future, as an American-based secret society, The Invisible Hand, advances its plot to overthrow the Czarist government of Russia, aided by various Inventions of its Scientist membership, including an advanced submarine, which has been constructed by the Invisibles's leader, a ...
Parkman, Sydney
(1895-1995) UK author, usually of adventure fiction, but including two humorous sf tales: Ship Ashore (1936), in which the descendants of a seventeenth-century shipwreck are found on a mysterious Island off the coast of Borneo, and Life Begins Tomorrow (1947), the latter set in the Near Future. [JC]
Collectible Miniatures Game
Term used to describe a form of Wargame which uses miniatures collectible in the manner of a Collectible Card Game (see also Collectibles). Thus the figures are sold in packs, some of which contain rare items distributed at random; this practice encourages the purchase of multiple packs. Figures are sold fully assembled and painted, in contrast to traditional ...
Duggan, Ervin S
(1939- ) US commentator, President from 1993 to 1999 of the American Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), and author of Against All Enemies (1977) with Ben J Wattenberg, a Future War novel told from a moderately conservative standpoint. [JC]
Mecha
In this encyclopedia, a pilotable or remote-operable machine, often bipedal or otherwise humanoid in form, encompassing the city-stomping war machines of Anime and the Powered Armour suits of numerous sf shows. / Strictly speaking, the term mecha originates in Japanese from the English "mechanism", and refers to any form of machinery. A concentration on the workings or design of a particular machine is not uncommon in ...
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 ...