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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 ...
Seabrook, Jack
(? - ) Author and critic whose books of genre relevance are studies of Fredric Brown and Jack Finney, respectively Martians and Misplaced Clues: The Life and Work of Fredric Brown (1993) and Stealing Through Time: On the Writings of Jack Finney (2006). [DRL] /
Waiting for the Barbarians
The title of a poem by the major Greek author C P Cavafy (1863-1933). Periménontas toủs Varvárous ["Waiting for the Barbarians"] (written 1898; 1904 pamphlet) is famous for this title, for its structure, and for the sting in its tale. The title itself has become a Meme, although it is a tag almost impossible to pin one firm meaning to. Not unusually for Cavafy, the text of the poem is constructed as an almost realized narrative, ...
Wonderful Galaxy of Oz, The
Japanese animated film (1996). Enoki Films, EZ Films. Directed by Yoshiaki Okumura and Sōji Yoshikawa. Written by Sōji Yoshikawa (and Glenn German). 80 minutes. Colour. / The Japanese animated Television series Space Oz no Bōken (1992-1993; vt The Adventures of Space Oz; vt The Galaxy Adventures of Oz), comprising 26 25-minute episodes, is based on the novel ...
Horne, Richard Henry
(1803-1884) UK dramatist, poet and author, who changed his name to Richard Hengist Horne in 1867; credited by William Wilson as the author of what is, according to Wilson's Definition of SF, an exemplary work of "Science-Fiction": The Poor Artist, or Seven Eye-Sights and One Object: "Science in Fable" (1850; vt with added essay The Poor Artist, or Seven Eye-Sights and One Object 1871 as by ...
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 ...