SF Encyclopedia Home Page
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 ...
Wonder Woman
Dark-haired US Comic-book Superhero – the first female example of major and lasting importance (but see Miss Fury for discussion of earlier candidates). Dressed in star-spangled blue shorts and a low-cut, strapless red top with a gold eagle motif, red high-heeled boots and a gold tiara, she also wears gold, bullet-deflecting bracelets which, if chained together by a man, become "bracelets of ...
Jael
(1937-2020) Working name of an American artist who was persistently coy about her full name; however, since it is known that her mother was named Muriel Ashton, and since records show that a Jael Ashton graduated in 1956 from West High School in Salt Lake City, Utah, the state where she grew up, it is reasonable to conclude that Jael Ashton was her original name. After an earlier marriage, she was married to Greg Ruesch until her death. Her activities in the years following high school are ...
Life on Mars
US tv series (2008-2009). Kudos Film and Television for ABC. Created by Josh Appelbaum, André Nemec, and Scott Rosenberg, based on the British series of the same name, created by Matthew Graham and Ashley Pharaoh. Writers include Appelbaum, Nemec and Rosenberg. Directors include Michael Katleman, Darnell Martin and Alex Zakrzewki. Cast includes Jason O'Mara as Sam Tyler, Harvey Keitel as Gene Hunt, Gretchen Mol as Annie Norris, Michael Imperioli as Ray Carling and Jonathan Murphy ...
Sears, Richard
(? - ) US journalist, counsellor and author of First Born (2000), in which an Alien entity, possibly descended to America by flying saucer (see UFOs), seems to have been implanting its seed in human women; hunted by Neo Tech arm of the government, for its own purposes. The unusual child itself survives, and may take us in hand. Last Day (2001), though its storyline is not ...
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 ...