SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Monday 20 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 20 April 2026
Sponsor of the day: Paul Giamatti
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 ...
VanderMeer, Jeff
(1968- ) US editor and author, married to Ann VanderMeer, who began to publish work of genre interest, after at least one story published in college, with "So the Dead Walk Slowly" in Fear for November 1989, and who is probably best known for the Ambergris sequence of novels and tales, which begins with two novellas, Dradin, in Love: A Tale of Elsewhen & Otherwhere (1996 chap) and ...
Blaue Palais, Das
["The Blue Palace"] German tv miniseries (1974; 1976). Produced by German Bavaria Atelier Studios in co-operation with French Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française (ORTF). Created, written, and directed by Rainer Erler. Cast includes Peter Fricke, Dieter Laser, Evelyn Opela and Eva Renzi. Five 90-minute episodes, three broadcast in 1974 and two in 1976. Colour. / Named after the feudal mansion in Germany that provides ...
Day of the Dead
Film (1985). Laurel. Directed by George Romero. Written by Romero. Cast includes Terry Alexander, Lori Cardille, Richard Liberty, Joseph Pilato and Howard Sherman. 101 minutes, cut to 100 minutes. Colour. / Romero's plan, after showing the initial Zombie attacks in Night of the Living Dead (1968) and the total breakdown of society in ...
Universal Soldier
Film (1992). Carolco International. Directed by Roland Emmerich. Executive producer Mario Kassar. Written by Richard Rothstein, Christopher Leitch, Dean Devlin. Cast includes Dolph Lundgren, Jerry Orbach, Ed O'Ross, Jean-Claude Van Damme and Ally Walker. 103 minutes. Colour. / Crisply made but derivative in most of its plot turns, Universal Soldier centres on a secret military unit of Cyborgs, many reconstructed ...
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 ...