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Friday 17 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 ...
Harpur, Patrick
(1950- ) UK author in whose first novel, The Serpent's Circle (1985; vt Serpent's Circle 1985), a secret monastic order called The Little Brothers of the Apostles unleashes its old Religion against the Roman Catholic Church; the Little Brothers, a cohort of Secret Masters, do not themselves reappear in Harpur's work, though a sense of arcane empowerment irradiates his presentation ...
Invasion of the Star Creatures
Film (1962). Alta Vista Productions, American International Pictures. Produced by Berj Hagopian. Directed by Bruno VeSota. Written by Jonathan Haze based on his original story "Monsters from Nicholson Mesa". Cast includes Robert Ball (credited as Bob Ball), Mark Ferris, Frankie Ray, Dolores Reed and Gloria Victor. 70 minutes. Black and white. / A pair of comically inept US Army soldiers, Privates Philbrick (Ball) and Penn (Ray), are ...
Foster, C E
(1919-2009) American engineer and author in whose sf novel, Journey to the Future (1966), human beings must define themselves in terms of the ambivalently Utopian world of the future. [JC]
Roger, Aristide
Working name of French physician and author Pierre-Jules Aristide Rengade Roger (1841-1915), whose Aventures extraordinaires de Trinitus; ou le Voyage sous les flots, rédigés d'après le journal de bord de l'Éclair (first appeared October 1867-last instalment unknown Le Petit Journal; 1868; trans Brian Stableford as Voyage Beneath the Waves 2013) is a ...
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 ...