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Wednesday 11 March 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 9 March 2026
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van Loden, Erle
Pseudonym used for sf by Ernest Lister Hale Willis (1919-1988), UK teacher, Television director and author who was very prolific in the last capacity under a number of bylines, his principal working name being Lisle Willis. He began to publish work of genre interest as by van Loden with "Demons of Daavol" in the 1952 Wonders of the Spaceways #5 from John Spencer and Co (see ...
Armstrong, C Wicksteed
(1871-1963) UK author who worked for some years as a schoolteacher in South America. His first sf novel, The Yorl of the Northmen, or The Fate of the English Race: Being the Romance of a Monarchical Utopia (1892) as by Charles Strongi'th'arm, envisions a feudal and Eugenics-dominated world partially modelled on the works of William Morris. Armstrong's second novel, ...
Lightman, Alan
(1948- ) US physicist and author, currently a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is relevant to sf for four reasons. First, he is best known for his novels, especially Einstein's Dreams (1993), which is of associational interest because it fictionalizes Albert Einstein's experiences while he was working on his groundbreaking theories (see Relativity), sometimes describing dreams with fantastic elements. ...
Klainer, Jo-Ann
(1937- ) US author of two sf novels in collaboration with her husband Albert S Klainer, The Eleventh Plague (1973; typographical vt The 11th Plague 1976 as Albert S Klainer and Jo-Ann Klainer) as by L T Peters (see Pandemic), and The Judas Gene (1980) with Albert S Klainer. Both mix Horror in SF and ...
James, Roby
Pseudonym of US scriptwriter, spiritual adviser and author Rhoda Blecker (? - ); the Starfire sequence, comprising Commencement (1996) and Commitment (1997), features a young woman with Psi Powers who, after being trained to use them for evil by an interstellar government, learns to use them for good, which benefits all. Beyond the Hedge (2006) is fantasy. [JC]
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 ...