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Tuesday 14 April 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 April 2026
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Watson, Ian
(1943-2026) UK teacher and author who lectured in English in Tanzania (1965-1967) and Tokyo (1967-1970) before beginning to publish sf with "Roof Garden Under Saturn" for New Worlds in 1969; he then taught Future Studies for six years at Birmingham Polytechnic, taking there one of the first academic courses in sf in the UK; he became a full-time writer in 1976, publishing around 200 short stories since 1969 at a gradually increasing tempo and with visibly ...
Hartlib, Samuel
(circa 1600-1662) Polish-born scientist, chemist and author, in the UK from about 1628. Hartlib was long assumed to be the author of an anonymous Royalist Utopia: ...
Gallagher, Matt
(1983- ) US former soldier and author whose military experiences are reflected in a blog, Kaboom: A Soldier's War Journal (2007-2008), which was shut down by his superiors; in his first book, Kaboom: Embracing the Suck in a Savage Little War (2010), a memoir; and in his first novel, Youngblood (2016), a complex nonfantastic rendering of America's intimate involvement in Iraq. Gallagher is of sf interest for his second novel, ...
Rocket Comics
US Comic (1940). Hillman-Curl, Inc. Three issues. Artists include Jack Alderman, Jack Cole and Maurice Gutwirth. Each issue had 7 strips plus one or two short pieces (text story and/or nonfiction). / Each issue opens with a serial, "The Runaway Rocket" featuring Rocket Riley, Prince of the Planets, employed as the pilot of Professor Sterling's experimental interplanetary rocket ships. One day the professor announces he has "discovered how to explode the ...
Steamboy
Japanese animated film (2004). Bandai Visual, Studio 4 degrees C, Steamboy Committee. Directed by Katsuhiro Ōtomo. Written by Sadayuki Murai and Katsuhiro Ōtomo. Cast includes Kiyoshi Kodama, Manami Konishi, Katsuo Nakamura, Ann Suzuki and Masane Tsukayama. 126 minutes (also cut at 103 minutes). Colour. / Ponderous Steampunk caper in which a family of inventors trap super-heated, ...
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 ...