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Wednesday 18 February 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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Frith, Henry
(1840-1917) Irish-born civil engineer, translator and author, in England from early adulthood; mostly known for his translations from the French, at least six being of novels by Jules Verne, beginning with Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea (trans 1876). He is credited with a short story of sf interest, "The Balloon of the Future" (May 1885 Cassell's Family Magazine) (see Balloons), and an adaptation, which may ...
Quinn, Daniel
(1935-2018) US author who began publishing work of genre interest with Dreamer (1988), which reads initially as a dark Fantasy, but whose protagonist is in fact a victim of Dream Hacking; he came to wide notice with Ishmael (1992), which won the first and only Turner Tomorrow Award of $500,000, and was filmed as Instinct (1999) directed by Jon Turteltaub; it also ...
Mahaffey, Bea
(1928-1987) Familiar name of US Magazine editor and fan Beatrice Mahaffey, who nominally coedited but was often the de facto editor of Raymond A Palmer's sf publications, in which any traces of higher quality and editorial care are generally attributed to Mahaffey. She worked on Other Worlds as managing editor May 1950 to October 1952 and as coeditor November 1952 to July 1953 and May 1955 to ...
Smith, James Robert
(1957- ) US author who began to publish work of genre interest with "Things Not Seen" in 2 AM for Spring 1987, most of his short work being horror. His first novel, The Flock (2006), is a very Near Future action-heavy tale featuring the eponymous civilization of highly intelligent prehistoric birds, whose survival into the present in the backwoods of inland Florida has been made possible by its enormous care not to ...
James, Roby
Pseudonym of US scriptwriter, spiritual adviser and author Rhoda Blecker (? - ); the Starfire sequence, comprising Commencement (1996) and Commitment (1997), features a young woman with Psi Powers who, after being trained to use them for evil by an interstellar government, learns to use them for good, which benefits all. Beyond the Hedge (2006) is fantasy. [JC]
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 ...