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Thursday 16 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 ...
Technoroid Overmind
Japanese animated tv series (2023). Doga Kobo. Directed by Ka Hee Im. Written by Ayumi Sekine. Voice cast includes Daiki Hamano, Kayto, Takuya Kirimoto, Hiromu Mineta, Kenji Nojima, Asami Seto, Satoi Shibuya, Mutsumi Tamura and Kazuki Ura. Twelve 24-minute episodes. Colour. / In 2095 (see Near Future) Earth's population has plummeted owing to the effects of global warming (see ...
Empire of the Ants
Film (1977; vt H G Wells' Empire of the Ants). MGM Studios, Cinema 77, American International Pictures (AIP). Directed by Bert I Gordon. Screenplay by Gordon and Jack Turley, very loosely based on "The Empire of the Ants" (December 1905 Strand Magazine) by H G Wells. Cast includes Joan Collins, Robert Lansing. 82 minutes. ...
Shy
Japanese animated tv series (2023). Eight Bit. Based on the Manga by Bukimi Miki. Directed by Masaomi Andō. Written by Yasuhiro Nakanishi, Voice cast includes Kikuko Inoue, Rina Hidaka, Shin-ichiro Miki, Mamiko Noto, Miyuki Sawashiro, Shino Shimoji and Mutsumi Tamura. Twelve 24-minute episodes. Colour. / War disappeared from Earth in the mid-twenty-first century (see ...
Liss, David
(1966- ) US comics writer and author, most of whose novels have been historical thrillers, beginning with A Conspiracy of Paper (2000), most featuring Benjamin Weaver [not listed below]. A Young Adult series, the Randoms sequence beginning with Randoms (2015), a slightly helter-skelter though deliberately comic narrative whose young protagonist Zeke discovers that the sf he had devoured when even ...
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 ...