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Sunday 14 June 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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Duffy, Maureen
(1933-2026) UK author, active from around 1950, several of whose books focused on London, including Capital (1975), a complex set of era-switching meditations – including a Neanderthal man's thoughts about the future – on the deep mythos of the city. The novel influenced Michael Moorcock's Mother London (1988) (as the author acknowledged clearly), and similar later works by Iain ...
Schmatz, Pat
(? - ) US author of children's and Young Adult books. Mrs. Estronsky and the U.F.O. (2001) is primarily about growing up but includes a UFO encounter. In Circle the Truth (2007), an irruption of gentle surrealism – the geography of the young protagonist's home changes or seems to change by night – leads to even-handed exploration of faith, ...
McEvoy, Seth
(?1948- ) US author. His Not Quite Human sequence of young-adult sf tales is about a teenage Android, beginning with Not Quite Human #1: Batteries Not Included (1985) and ending with Not Quite Human #6: Killer Robot (1986). The Arcade Explorers Gamebook sequence, all written with Laure Smith (whom see for further details), begins with ...
Cosmopolis
Film (2012). Alfama Films/Prospero Pictures/Konology. Directed and written by David Cronenberg, from the novel Cosmopolis (2002) by Don DeLillo. Cast includes Abdul Ayoola, Juliette Binoche, Kevin Durant, Sarah Gadon, Paul Giamatti, Emily Hampshire, Patricia McKenzie, Samantha Morton, Robert Pattinson and George Touliatos. 109 minutes. Colour. / Cosmopolis the film shares with Don ...
Whelan, Michael
(1950- ) American artist. After obtaining a BA in art from San Jose State University in 1973, Whelan began attending the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles; however, after displaying his artwork at a few sf conventions, he received an offer from Donald A Wollheim to paint covers for DAW Books, inspiring him to leave school and move to New York to work as a professional artist. Some of his early ...
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 ...