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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 ...
Simpson, George Gaylord
(1902-1984) US palaeontologist and author, significant for his work on the theory of Evolution; his opposition to the theory of continental drift delayed acceptance of the obvious among scientists, though he himself eventually accepted the evidence. He is of sf interest for The Dechronization of Sam Magruder (date of composition unknown; 1996), in which through a laboratory accident the eponymous Scientist is thrown back ...
Chronomaster
Videogame (1995). DreamForge Entertainment. Designed by Roger Zelazny, Jane Lindskold. Platforms: DOS. / The graphical Adventure game Chronomaster was Roger Zelazny's last work. In a future galactic civilization, the creation of privately owned Pocket Universes has become a hobby ...
Lethem, Jonathan
(1964- ) US author, married 1987-1998 to Shelley Jackson, who began publishing work of sf interest with "The Unexpurgated Zap Gun: A Report" for The Philip K Dick Society Newsletter #15 in 1987, the first of several pieces on Philip K Dick whose natural – though not inevitable – culmination was his editing for the Library of America three Dick omnibuses, beginning with ...
Williams, Missouri
(1992- ) US editor, playwright and author, now in Prague, whose first novel The Doloriad (2022) focuses primarily on a family composed both of survivors of and those born with Mutations after a Near-Future series of planetary Disasters. Incest seems necessary, as they may be the only humans left. But the matriarchal head of the clan sends the protagonist, who was ...
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 ...