SF Encyclopedia Home Page
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
Sponsor of the day: The League of Fan Funds
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 ...
Joshi, Ruchir
(1960- ) Indian journalist and author whose first novel, The Last Jet-Engine Laugh (2001), is set in Near Future Calcutta, around 2020/2030, but whose narrative shuttlecocks through various eras as the protagonist reflects upon his and his country's almost unendurably complex history from 1970 to the moment he sits down to reflect, sometime after cities like Bombay and Karachi have been destroyed by nuclear bombs as the ...
Lindall, Edward
Pseudonym of Australian author Edward Ernest Smith (1915-1978), in whose Near Future sf novel, Roar of the Lion (1969), a 1980s insurrection, modelled on the example of the Viet Cong, ignites an Island in the South Pacific; the major powers soon intervene. [JC]
Wye, Alan
(? -? ) UK author of The Remnants of 1927 (1925) with Paul Long, a Future War tale involving the Invasion of the UK by Russia. [JC]
Dominion Tank Police
Japanese Original Video Animation (OVA) (1988-1989). Original title Dominion. Based on the Manga by Masamune Shirow. Episodes 1-2: Ginga Teikoku. Directed and written by Kōichi Mashimo. Episodes 3-4: Agent 21. Directed by Takaaki Ishiyama. Written by Futoshi Takano. Voice cast includes Yūko Mita, Michie Tomizawa, Hiromi Tsuru, Jouji Yanami and Yūsaku Yara. Four ...
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 ...