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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
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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 ...
Ufofu
Shortlived US band, based in Dallas, Texas, whose members were Joe Butcher and the brothers Ben Curtis (1978-2013) and Brandon Curtis. Stylistically Ufofu were a blend of punk jaggedness and a jazzier experimental element; their albums Extra Terrestrial Jazz Distortion (?1996) and Ufofu (1997) are imaginative and energetic if not wholly coherent examples of postpunk sf. [AR/DRL] see also: SF Music. / links / ...
Afford, Malcolm R
(1906-1954) Australian playwright, scriptwriter and author whose novels are adventure thrillers without fantastic content. His only known sf story, "The Gland Men of the Island" (January 1931 Wonder Stories; vt "The Ho-Ming Gland" February 1933 Amazing), is a Yellow Peril tale set on a Pacific Island, where a Mad Scientist is creating ...
Emecheta, Buchi
(1944-2017) Nigerian-born author, in the UK from 1962, author of a number of semi-autobiographical, feminist novels which vividly describe the lives of African women in the industrial UK during the years of its decline. The Rape of Shavi (1983), set in the Near Future, describes the effect upon the African country of Shavi when a horde of refugees from a European nuclear Holocaust descends like locusts. Kehinde ...
Schwartz, Ellen
(1949- ) US born author, in Canada from 1972, who has specialized in novels for the Young Adult market and for younger readers. Of some sf interest is Jesse's Star (2000), whose young protagonist, on a school assignment to find out about his Jewish ancestors, finds an old Star of David and is Timeslipped into 1880s Russia, where he helps his family and fellow villagers escape persecution and ...
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 ...