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Wednesday 18 June 2025
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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Forsyth, Frederick
(1938-2025) UK author who gained fame with his first novel, The Day of the Jackal (1971), and whose books are generally political thrillers. The Shepherd (1975 chap), however, is a sentimental Timeslip or ghost fantasy in which a pilot on Christmas Eve 1957 is saved from crashing by a World War Two pilot in an antique bomber: pilot and plane had been shot down on the Christmas Eve of 1943. ...
Louvish, Simon
(1947- ) Scottish author, in Israel 1949-1968, now in London; best known for a series of biographies of Cinema figures like Charlie Chaplin and Cecil B DeMille (none listed below). His Avram Blok sequence beginning with The Therapy of Avram Blok (1985) is a surreal, occasionally rampaging picaresque whose earlier instalments verge, if only metaphorically, into the fantastic; the topoi of ...
Kenyon, Sherrilyn
(1965- ) US author of romance fiction, who has also written as by Kinley MacGregor and Sherrilyn McQueen; much of her work can be categorized as paranormal romance [for this and Supernatural Fiction see The Encyclopedia of Fantasy under links below], including the extensive Dark-Hunter sequence beginning with Fantasy Lover (2002), about a Spartan hero, son of Aphrodite, who is imprisoned in a ...
Smith, D R
Working name of Donald Raymond Smith (1917-1999), UK author, editor and fan who along with J Michael Rosenblum was instrumental in maintaining lines of communication within UK Fandom during World War Two, in particular editing the British Fantasy Society Bulletin (1942-1946). He was an often controversial columnist in Britain's first ...
Wright, John C
(1961- ) US author who began publishing work of genre interest with "Not Born a Man" in Aberrations for Christmas 1994, and whose novels, most of them comprising series, vigorously attest the value of modern Space Opera as a format or arena capable of representing complex philosophical and (perhaps less rewardingly to a general audience) Religious arguments, ranging from ...
Nicholls, Peter
(1939-2018) Australian editor and author, primarily a critic and historian of sf through his creation and editing of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction [see below]; resident in the UK 1970-1988, in Australia from 1988; worked as an academic in English literature (1962-1968, 1971-1977), scripted television documentaries, was a Harkness Fellow in Film-making (1968-1970) in the USA, worked as a publisher's editor (1982-1983), often broadcast film and book reviews on BBC Radio from 1974 and ...