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Tuesday 21 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 20 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 ...
Zero Theorem, The
Film (2013). Voltage Pictures presents an Asia & Europe Productions and Zanuck Independent production in association with Zephyr Films, Media Pro Pictures, Le Pacte, Wild Side Films, Picture Perfect Corporation and Film Capital Europe Funds. Directed by Terry Gilliam. Written by Pat Rushin, with additional material by Gilliam. Cast includes Matt Damon, Lucas Hedges, Tilda Swinton, David Thewlis, Mélanie Thierry and Christoph Waltz. 107 ...
Escape Velocity
US/UK Semiprozine available online for download and print-on-demand. Published by Adventure Books of Seattle, Washington, run by Robert Blevins, who co-produced the magazine with Geoff Nelder of Chester, England. The print version was A4 size, with varying page numbers, glossy covers and some interior photographs, but little otherwise by way of format or design. It ran for four issues, November 2007 to February 2009, the first ...
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Film (2008). Lucasfilm Ltd/Paramount Pictures. Directed by Steven Spielberg. Written by David Koepp, based on a story by George Lucas and Jeff Nathanson. Cast includes Karen Allen, Harrison Ford and Shia LeBoef. 122 minutes. Colour. / The first three instalments of this much-loved modern Pulp series – Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), ...
Gamow, George
(1904-1968) Russian physicist born Georgiy Antonovich Gamov, involved in the development of quantum theory at Göttingen and later a colleague of Niels Bohr (1885-1962) and Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937). He defected in 1934 to the US, working from that year at George Washington University, where he eventually held the chair of theoretical physics; he became a US citizen in 1940, but was barred from the Manhattan Project, presumably as a security risk. After ...
Langford, David
(1953- ) UK author, critic, editor, publisher and sf fan, in the latter capacity recipient of 21 Hugo awards for fan writing – some of the best of his several hundred pieces are assembled as Let's Hear It for the Deaf Man (coll 1992 chap US; much exp vt The Silence of the Langford 1996; exp 2015 ebook) as Dave Langford, edited by Ben Yalow – plus five Best Fanzine Hugos ...