SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Sunday 18 January 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 14 January 2026
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von Däniken, Erich
(1935-2026) Swiss author of a series of purportedly nonfiction books, beginning with Erinnerungen an die Zukunft (1968; trans Michael Heron as Chariots of the Gods? 1969), which, based on a mass of often suspect and internally inconsistent data, argues that the Earth was visited by at least one Alien spacefaring race before and at the dawn of historical time; thus, for example, the Great Pyramid of ...
Adams, Scott
(1957-2026) US author and cartoonist best known for the Dilbert strip published from 1989, which when at its best superbly (in terms of concept and accuracy of Satire rather than quality of drawing) satirized contemporary office life and corporate incompetence. As with most ambitious modern comic strips, it segues frequently into sf and fantasy tropes – such as Robot office workers, wish-fulfilling ...
Saperstein, David
(1937- ) US author, producer, director and screenwriter whose original storyline was the basis of the film Cocoon (1985) directed by Ron Howard. Saperstein also novelized the script as Cocoon (1985) and wrote his own sequels Metamorphosis (1988) – not based on the film's sequel – and Butterfly: Tomorrow's Children (2013 ebook). / Further work of genre interest includes the ...
Hillman, Harry W
(1870-1938) US engineer – employed in various capacities by the General Electric Company in Schenectady, New York – and author, most of whose nonfiction described existing, soon-to-exist and possible innovations in the use of electricity. His Utopia, Looking Forward: The Phenomenal Progress of Electricity in 1912 (1906), views with a hearty fictionalizing touch much of the same material. It shares tone and some plot elements with Edward ...
Suga Hiroe
(1963- ) Japanese author, musician and traditional dancer with strong connections to Japanese Fandom. Her professional debut "Blue Flight" (April 1981 SF Hōseki) [original title in English] had initially appeared in a Fanzine but was spotted by Tetsu Yano and bought for reprint. After the publication of the historical mystery Miyako no Kijo ...
Robinson, Roger
(1943- ) UK computer programmer, bibliographer and publisher, active in UK Fandom for many years. The Writings of Henry Kenneth Bulmer (1983 chap; rev 1984 chap) is an exhaustive Bibliography of one of the most prolific sf writers, Kenneth Bulmer, and Who's Hugh?: An SF Reader's Guide to Pseudonyms (1987) is similarly exhaustive in its ...