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Friday 13 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.
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Gnosspelius, Staffan
(1976- ) Swedish-born illustrator and graphic artist, in the UK since 1999, active from around then. He has illustrated picture books to texts by Swedish authors (published only in Swedish); the books for which he is wholly responsible have appeared in English, beginning with The Tristan Story (graph 2004) whose young protagonist loses his "crying", which he must search for in the bowels of his uncle's car: a Little-Big quest into a huge world growing huger, ...
Ryan, Alan
(1943-2011) US author, principally of Horror, and anthology editor who began to publish work of genre interest with "Dragon Story" in Chrysalis 2 (anth 1978) edited by Roy Torgeson. His anthologies include the Religion-themed Perpetual Light (anth 1982), Night Visions 1 (anth 1984) – inaugurating the Night Visions sequence continued by other ...
Ducornet, Rikki
Working name of US illustrator and author Erica Ducornet (1943- ), resident in various countries, including for a considerable time Canada, now in US; she began to publish work of genre interest with "Aunt Rose & Uncle Freidle" in Other Times for November 1975/January 1976. Included in her graphic work is a set of abstracted drawings for Robert Coover's Spanking the Maid (1981 chap); she ...
Bolland, Brian
(1951- ) UK Comic-book artist highly regarded for his smooth line and meticulous, sculptural drawing style. His first strip work appeared in the underground magazine Oz in 1971. In 1975-1977 he drew Powerman, a Black Superhero, for the Nigerian market, his episodes alternating with those by Dave Gibbons, and then he began producing covers for ...
Huang Yi
Pen name of Huang Zuqiang (1952-2017), a Chinese author primarily of the historical swords-and-sorcery genre known as Wuxia. After training as a painter, he served as an assistant curator at the Hong Kong Museum of Art, before resigning in 1989 to dedicate himself to his writing. Huang's wuxia work, written in imitation of Ni Kuang and Jin Yong, might have remained firmly 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 ...