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Wednesday 22 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.
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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 ...
Tiptree, James, Jr
Pseudonym of US psychologist and author Alice Hastings Bradley Sheldon (1915-1987), who was widely assumed to be a man, despite the deep rapport "he" displayed for women in stories like "The Women Men Don't See" (December 1973 F&SF). "James Tiptree Jr" flourished from 1967 until her identity was exposed in 1977. Beginning in 1974, she also wrote several sf stories as Raccoona Sheldon, and some earlier non-fantastic work under other names, including her first fiction, ...
Chronicles of Riddick, The
Film (2004). Universal Pictures presents a Radar Pictures/One Race Films production. Written and directed by David Twohy. Cast includes Alexa Davalos, Keith David, Judi Dench, Vin Diesel, Colm Feore, Thandie Newton and Karl Urban. Theatrical cut 119 minutes; Director's Cut 135 minutes. Colour. / Five years on from the events of Pitch Black (2000), Riddick is drawn from hiding to combat the Necromongers, an ...
Chainsaw Man
Japanese animated tv series (2022). MAPPA. Based on the Manga by Tatsuki Fujimoto. Directed by Ryū Nakayama and Masato Nakazono. Written by Hiroshi Seko. Voice cast includes Fairouz Ai, Mariya Ise, Tomori Kusunoki, Shogo Sakata, Karin Takahashi and Kikunosuke Toya. Twelve 24-minute episodes. Colour. / In the late 1990s Earth is plagued by Devils, Monsters that embody humanity's fears (see ...
Yankovic, "Weird Al"
Working name of prolific US Satirical songwriter, performer, and accordion player Alfred Matthew Yankovic (1959- ), known for comedic Parodies of famous contemporary songs and polka medleys. He has tackled such crucial mid-to-late-twentieth-century topics as ice cream, e-commerce, trash, love, prank phone calls, lepers, germs, and much more. His genre-relevant songs have taken on everything from the ...
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 ...