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Thursday 16 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 ...
Fergus, Dyjan
Pseudonym used by Canadian bookkeeper and chemist Ida May Ferguson (1871-1899) – whose married name from 1898 was Thompson – for her only novel, Tisab Ting; or, The Electrical Kiss (1896). This tale, one of the earliest Canadian sf novels and apparently the first by a Canadian woman, is set a century in the future of its time of writing, and tells of a man from newly powerful China who comes to Canada in hopes of marrying the daughter of his ...
Fantasy [magazines]
Title used on two early UK sf magazines. / 1. UK Pulp magazine published by George Newnes Ltd, edited by T Stanhope Sprigg (1903-1977) as a companion to his highly successful Air Stories. It saw three undated issues released in Summer 1938 and Spring and Summer 1939. Its material, though now badly dated, was typical of the stereotypical pulp fiction of the day and included work by John Beynon Harris (see John ...
Topping, Keith
(1963- ) UK author, journalist and broadcaster whose fiction output of sf interest consists of ties to the Doctor Who universe, beginning with Doctor Who: The Devil Goblins from Neptune (1997) with Martin Day. His nonfiction, besides collaborations with Day and Paul Cornell, includes the ...
Truman Show, The
Film (1998). Paramount Pictures presents a Scott Rudin production. Directed by Peter Weir. Written by Andrew Niccol. Cast includes Jim Carrey, Noah Emmerich, Ed Harris, Laura Linney and Natascha McElhone. 103 minutes. Colour. / Truman Burbank (Carrey) discovers that his entire life has been lived in a 24/7 reality television show, and that his idyllic Florida community is a vast enclosed soundstage in which everyone else is an actor. / Niccol's ...
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 ...