SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Sunday 19 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: Conversation 2023
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 ...
Neutron vs The Death Robots
Mexican film (1962; original title Los Autómatas de la Muerte; vt Neutron the Atomic Superman vs. the Death Robots). Estudios América, Producciones Corsa S.A. Directed by Federico Curiel. Written by Federico Curiel and Alfredo Ruanova. Cast includes Julio Aleman, Rosita Arenas, Wolf Ruvinskis and Jack Taylor. 80 minutes. Black and white. / The film opens with a television reporter helpfully recapping the events of the first ...
Pantell, Dora
(1915-1996) US teacher, technical writer and author of fiction for children, best known for her continuation of Ellen MacGregor's Miss Pickerell series of tales about Lavinia Pickerell, a highly adventurous New England spinster. Pantell wrote most her contributions as with MacGregor, who had left copious notes for continuations of the sequence, in which Pickerell applies her rigorous intellect to uncovering the scientific premises underlying ...
Somtow, S P
Working name of Thai composer/conductor and author Somtow Papinian Sucharitkul (1952- ), who has had a full double career, his first professional appearance as a conductor being at the age of nineteen; he used his actual surname from the beginning of his career to 1985, when he switched to S P Somtow, announcing that any book previously signed Sucharitkul would be signed Somtow on reprinting (although some children's books continued to appear under the earlier form of his ...
Blindness
Film (2008). Focus Features International presents an Alliance Films, Fox Filmes do Brasil, GAGA Communications, Asmik Ace Entertainment, Mikado, IFF/CNV, Téléfilm Canada, Ancine and Potboiler Productions production in association with TV Limited, Corus Entertainment, Fiat, BNDES and Cinema Investment with Rhombus Media, O2 Filmes and Bee Vine Pictures. Directed by Fernando Meirelles. Written by Don McKellar, adapted from the novel Ensaio sobre a cegueira ...
Robinson, Roger
(1943- ) UK computer programmer, bibliographer and publisher, active in UK Fandom for many years. The Writings of Henry Kenneth Bulmer (1983 chap; rev 1984 chap) is an exhaustive Bibliography of one of the most prolific sf writers, Kenneth Bulmer, and Who's Hugh?: An SF Reader's Guide to Pseudonyms (1987) is similarly exhaustive in its ...