SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Tuesday 20 May 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 19 May 2025
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Convertito, Bill
(? - ) US author of an sf thriller, The Rombella Shuttle (1977), in which radical changes in the environment and human behaviour leads to justified Paranoia about the corrupting presence of Aliens adapted to be indistinguishable from humans; the human protagonist falls in love with one of these, and the conspiracy begins to unravel. [JC]
Lynn, Elizabeth A
(1946- ) US author who began to publish work of sf interest with "We All Have to Go" in the crime fiction anthology Tricks and Treats (anth 1976) edited by Joe Gores and Bill Pronzini. This was assembled with other early work in The Woman Who Loved the Moon and Other Stories (coll 1981), whose contents were selected for Tales from a Vanished Country (coll 1990), which also includes ...
Davis, Peter
Pseudonym of US ufologist (see UFOs) and author Isabel Lenore Davis (1902-1984), co-founder of Civilian Saucer Intelligence New York in 1954 (the "New York" was soon dropped), which has been described as an "evidence-based" organization. She is of sf interest for King of the Amazon (1933), a Lost World novel set in ancient Incan ruins far up the watershed of the great river; the protagonists of the tale, exploring this ...
Abarax
German symphonic-rock band, whose concept album Crying of the Whales (2005) dramatizes eco-outrage at whaling via a theory about the true nature of the world's whales (as the creators of mankind without whom human life is impossible) that is a little reminiscent of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. It was re-released as Crying of the Whales – Epic Version (2008). [AR/DRL] links / ...
Ringdahl, Roar
(1935- ) Norwegian author and editor regarded as the Grand Old Man of Norwegian Fandom. Twelve years before the 1966 foundation of the Oslo Students' SF Club (Aniara), Ringdahl and Cato N Lindberg founded what was later called "The First Norwegian Fandom". In sf magazines of the time they found the addresses of foreign fanzines, and got in touch with some 200 sf fans in Sweden, the UK and the USA. Their first Fanzine ...
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 ...