SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Sunday 15 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.
Site updated on 9 June 2025
Sponsor of the day: Stuart Hopen
Longyear, Barry B
(1942-2025) US author and editor who ran a printing company with his wife before beginning to write in 1977, beginning to publish work of genre interest with "The Tryouts" in Asimov's for November/December 1978. Before his 1981 hospitalization for alcoholism and addiction to prescription drugs – an experience which formed the basis of his non-sf novel Saint Mary Blue (1988) – he had already published prolifically, sometimes as by Frederick ...
Captain Zero
US Pulp magazine, three bimonthly issues, November 1949-March 1950, published by Recreational Reading Corp., Indiana, edited anonymously by Alden H Norton. Each issue contained a novel written by prolific pulp author G T Fleming-Roberts (1910-1968). As a result of a radiation overdose, Captain Zero (alias "The Master of Midnight") becomes involuntarily invisible at night; he uses his unwanted gift to operate against the ...
Cohen, Gary G
(1934- ) US professor of Biblical Studies, former Army Chaplain, and author of Civilization's Last Hurrah (1974), an sf tale set during a Middle Eastern Future War, in the course of which Israel makes use of a nuclear "laser beam" provided by the United States, and civilization – to the tune of the Book of Revelation – ends. [JC]
Pursuit
Made-for-tv film (1972). ABC Circle/ABC TV. Directed by Michael Crichton. Written by Robert Dozier, based on Binary (1972) by Crichton writing as by John Lange. Cast includes Ben Gazzara, E G Marshall, Martin Sheen, William Windom and Joseph Wiseman. 72 minutes. Colour. / In this lively thriller, Crichton's directorial debut, an extremist politician prepares to use a nerve-gas chemical Weapon capable of ...
Mathers, Helen
Pseudonym of UK author Ellen Buckingham Mathews Reeves (1850-1920), who gained her greatest success with her first novel, Comin' thro the Rye (1875 3vols) as by H B M, but who remained prolific for many years; of sf interest are The Juggler and the Soul (1896) and The Sin of Hagar (1896), both melodramas involving Hypnosis, experiments in Medicine, and reanimation of the dead. [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 ...