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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 ...
Montana, Ron
(1938- ) US author whose published work in Fanzines included "We the People" in 1974 for Craig Strete's Red Planet Earth. His first sf novel, The Sign of the Thunderbird (1977), conveys its Post-Holocaust protagonists to the New Mexico of 1860, where their actions in espousing a free Indian Nation generate an ...
Gillmore, Parker
(1835-1900) UK soldier, hunter and author, mostly of travel books published 1869-1896, often as by Ubique. His sf novel, The Amphibion's Voyage (1885), is a tale shaped suspiciously like a travelogue, but manages to evoke some interest for the eponymous amphibious vehicle, which carries its passengers through Africa into encounters with a sea Monster or two. [JC]
Firestarter
Film (1984). Universal. Directed by Mark L Lester. Written by Stanley Mann, based on Firestarter (1980) by Stephen King. Cast includes Drew Barrymore, Freddie Jones, David Keith, Heather Locklear, George C Scott and Martin Sheen. 114 minutes. Colour. / The novel is not one of King's best, but it hardly deserved this messy adaptation. A young girl, Charlie (Barrymore), has pyrotic powers and can start fires by mental concentration alone. ...
CyberCity Oedo 808
Japanese Original Video Animation (OVA) (1990-1991). Created by Juzo Mutsuki. Madhouse. Directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri, Written by Akinori Endo. Voice cast includes Takeshi Aono, Tesshō Genda, Hiroya Ishimaru, Unshō Ishizuka, Emi Shinohara, Kaneto Shiozawa and Norio Wakamoto. Three 45-minute episodes. Colour. / In 2808 three inmates of an orbital Prison ship ...
Clute, John
(1940- ) Canadian critic, editor and author, in the UK from 1969; married to Judith Clute from 1964, partner of Elizabeth Hand since 1996. He began to publish work of genre interest with an sf-tinged poem "Carcajou Lament" in Triquarterly for Winter 1960 [ie Autumn 1959]; he began consistently publishing sf reviews in his "New Fiction" column for the Toronto Star (1966-1967), and later in ...