SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Wednesday 15 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: Andy Richards of Cold Tonnage Books
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 ...
Bernstein, Al
(1918-1996) US author who wrote for SF Magazines as Donald Bern (seven stories, 1940-1944), Albert Bernsen (one story in 1950) and Robert Ray (one story in 1950; other magazine appearances of this name are Robert Ray). He began to publish work of genre interest with "The Man Who Knew All the Answers" in Amazing for August 1940 as by Donald Bern. His work was light-hearted and competent, though "If ...
Jensen, Liz
(1959- ) UK journalist, sculptor and author whose first novel, Egg Dancing (1995), is a Satire set in a Near Future Britain agitated by the destabilizing threat that Genetic Engineering can lead to the "Perfect Baby"; Ark Baby (1997), its thematic sibling, is also set in the Near Future and also deals with ...
Noy, John
(1892-1964) UK author, whose childhood paralytic illness kept him from service in World War One. Most of his tales are nautical/Airship thrillers for the Children's SF market, including at least three volumes in the Red Devil of the Air Force series beginning with Red Devil of the Air Force (1937), which feature Technologies impossible in the year ...
Fisher, Philip M, Jr
(1891-1973) US teacher, naval officer, author and financial auditor (in that order), whose work was restricted primarily to the Pulp magazines. His earliest sale was an article in Youth's Companion in 1916; his first fiction sale, and also his first work of sf, was "The Demise of Professor Manried" for All-Story Weekly, 18 August 1917. Here the eponymous professor is able to use electricity to amplify and harness thought ...
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 ...