SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Wednesday 6 December 2023
Welcome to the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Fourth Edition. Some sample entries appear below. Click here for the Introduction; here for the masthead; here for 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 4 December 2023
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Compton, D G
(1930-2023) UK author, born of parents who were both in the theatre; he increasingly lived in the USA after 1981. As Guy Compton, he published some unremarkable detective novels, beginning with Too Many Murderers (1962), and as by Frances Lynch produced some nonfantastic Gothics throughout his career; but soon turned to sf with tales almost always set in the Near Future, and anatomizing moral dilemmas within that arena: the future is very clearly ...
Helmreich, Joseph
(1983- ) US journalist, illustrator, voice-over actor, singer and author whose first novel, The Return (2017), ambitiously conflates a wide range of sf topoi – First Contact; Invasions; Secret Masters; Time Travel; UFO abductions – into a tale that shifts from the ...
Itō, Junji
(1963- ) Japanese Comics artist and writer. After a few years working as a dental technician he became a full-time Manga artist. Most of Itō's output is Horror, but often incorporates other Fantastika genres; his influences include manga artists Kazuo Umezu and Hideshi Hino, plus authors Yasutaka Tsutsui and H P ...
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Film (1977). Columbia. Directed by Steven Spielberg. Script credited to Spielberg but early draft actually written by Paul Schrader (1946- ), who disagreed with Spielberg over the treatment of his script and withdrew his name from the project. Cast includes Bob Balaban, Melinda Dillon, Richard Dreyfuss, Teri Garr, Cary Guffey and François Truffaut. 135 minutes. Colour. / After Star Wars ...
White, James
(1928-1999) UK author from Ulster who initially worked for various Belfast tailoring firms, as assistant manager of a department store, and from 1965 in various capacities for an aircraft company, ultimately as publicity officer 1968-1984; this mixed occupational experience is reflected in several of his works. His visible involvement with Fandom began with Slant (1948-1953); his articles appeared in many other ...
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. His first professional publication was the long sf-tinged poem "Carcajou Lament" (Winter 1960 [ie Autumn 1959] Triquarterly), though he only began consistently publishing sf reviews in his "New Fiction" column for the Toronto Star (1966-1967), and sf ...