SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Tuesday 12 May 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 11 May 2026
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Suzuki Kōji
(1957-2026) Japanese author and essayist, largely known in English through the Cinema adaptations of several of his books, the international success of which obscured his wide-ranging domestic output. His horror and Equipoisal fiction proceeded in tandem with a wide array (not listed here) of books on young fatherhood and occasional works on motorcycle travel. He was also the translator of Simon Brett's ...
Meredith, Geoffrey
(? - ) UK author of a Near Future sf novel for older children, The Radium Rebels (1946), in which a vein of hyper-rich radium (see Elements) allows its discoverer, a megalomaniac Mad Scientist, to invent various Weapons – including Ray guns and thousands of radium-driven one-person winged ...
Shaggy God Story
Term coined by Brian W Aldiss for the once-common sf Cliché of crudely rationalized Biblical myth. A typical specimen would derive its entire impact, or lack of impact, from the revelation that two experimental lifeforms released to populate an empty world are in fact Adam and Eve (which see for further discussion). Defining "shaggy god story" in his short-lived "Dr Peristyle" column for ...
Downing, Peggy
(1924-2013) US author of books for children and Young Adults, author of the Exitorn Adventures sequence beginning with Brill and the Dragators (1987), which provides a Christian slant on Space Opera for younger readers. Apparent singletons include Help! I'm Drowning! and Other Emergencies (1985) and Help! I'm Shrinking! (1986). [JC]
Awerbuck, Diane
(1974- ) South African author whose first novel, the highly regarded Gardening at Night (2004), is nonfantastic; she has also written in collaboration with Alex Latimer as Frank Owen. She began to publish work of genre interest with the stories assembled as Cabin Fever (coll 2011), and is of strong sf interest for the Divided States sequence comprising South (2016) and North ...
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 ...