SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Sunday 19 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 14 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 ...
Williams, Tad
Working name of US author Robert Paul Williams (1957- ), almost all of whose work has been fantasy, including his first novel, Tailchaser's Song (1985), and whose most influential work is the Memory, Sorrow and Thorn sequence comprising The Dragonbone Chair (1988), Stone of Farewell (1990) and To Green Angel Tower (1993; vt in 2 vols Siege 1994 UK and Storm 1994 UK), which is ...
I Am Number Four
Film (2011). DreamWorks SKG and Reliance Big Entertainment present a Bay Films production. Directed by D J Caruso. Written by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar and Marti Noxon, based on the novel by Pittacus Lore. Cast includes Dianna Agron, Callan McAuliffe, Timothy Olyphant, Teresa Palmer and Alex Pettyfer. 109 minutes. Colour. / Optioned with impetuous haste on the basis of an in-progress draft of the novel and rushed into accelerated production in ...
People, The
US made-for-tv film (1972). American Zoetrope Productions/Metromedia Producers Corporation for ABC-TV. Produced by Gerald I Isenberg. Directed by John Korda. Written by James M Miller based on selected stories from Pilgrimage: The Book of the People (fixup 1961) and The People: No Different Flesh (coll of linked stories 1966) by Zenna Henderson. Cast includes Kim Darby, Dan O'Herlihy (Sol Diemus), William ...
Superman II
Film (1980). Dovemead/International Film Production. Directed by Richard Lester (but see below). Written by Mario Puzo, David Newman, Leslie Newman (and, as "creative consultant", Tom Mankiewicz) from a story by Puzo. Cast includes Ned Beatty, Sarah Douglas, Gene Hackman, Margot Kidder, Jack O'Halloran, Christopher Reeve, Terence Stamp and Susannah York. 127 minutes. Colour. / Originally to be shot back-to-back with ...
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 ...