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Wednesday 13 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.
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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 ...
Cross, Malcolm
(? - ) UK author whose Dangerous Jade (2012) is set in an Equipoisal fantasy-themed City full of anthropomorphic Clones. Orbital Decay (2014 ebook) is a contribution to the publisher's Shared World Afterblight Chronicles series. He is also of sf interest for his contribution to the ...
Cohen, Sol
(1903-1984) US editor and publisher who edited the Avon Science Fiction and Fantasy Reader in 1953. He was publisher of Galaxy between December 1962 and June 1965, and of If between November 1962 and May 1965; he launched Worlds of Tomorrow in April 1963. In 1965 Cohen's Ultimate Publishing Co bought the magazines ...
Taylor, Malcolm
(? - ) UK author for older children. Knight of the Air (1935) verges toward the fantastic as its protagonist discovers a sapphire rock in Africa; Wings Over Eldorado (1936) is a Lost World tale set in South America, where a cache of Incan gold is discovered; PX (1943), set in a familiar Near Future 1969, is an aviation adventure whose protagonist, ...
Life on Other Worlds
Early interplanetary travellers invariably discovered worlds which were markedly akin to Earth. Without a theory of Evolution for a guide, let alone any but the most primitive awareness of Ecology, the imaginative creation of other-worldly life was inevitably a haphazard and arbitrary process. One notable exception is Johannes Kepler's attempt to imagine lunar life in the last pages of Somnium ...
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 ...