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Wednesday 22 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
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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 ...
Rifbjerg, Klaus
(1931-2015) Danish poet and author, who has published at least 100 books since 1956; in his sf novel, De Hellige Aber (1981; trans Steve Murray as Witness to the Future 1987), two adolescents are transported almost half a century forward from 1941 (see Time Travel; World War Two), but find little in the year 1988 to give them joy about Progress. [JC]
Devilman Crybaby
Japanese animated webseries (2018). Based on the Manga Devilman by Go Nagai. Science Saru. Directed by Masaaki Yuasa. Written by Ichirō Ōkouchi. Voice cast includes Ayumu Murase and Kouki Uchiyama. Ten 25-minute episodes. Colour. / Two boys grow up together: one, Ryo Asuka (Murase) is a compassionless Social Darwinist; the other, Akira Fudo ...
Planetary
US Comic-book series by writer Warren Ellis (1968- ) and artist John Cassaday (1971-2024), published by Wildstorm Comics (which later became an imprint of DC Comics). The series ran for 27 issues and was published sporadically from April 1999 to October 2009. Three additional issues outside the main series, one of which crossed over with Batman, were also published in 2000, 2002 and 2003; ...
Watts, Nigel
(1957-? ) UK author in whose sf novel, Twenty Twenty (1995), which is punningly set in 2020, a writer has established a Keep in an abandoned factory in northern Canada, a finds himself haunted by a Virtual Reality connection with researchers in California. [JC]
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 ...