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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 ...
Collins, Gilbert
(1890-1960) UK author in various genres, in active service during World War One; his two Lost-World novels are of sf interest. The Valley of Eyes Unseen (1923) finds a Tibetan hidden valley inhabited by scientifically advanced descendants of Alexander the Great's Greeks, from whom the protagonist eventually escapes by purloining one of their Inventions, mechanical wings (see ...
MacLeod, Ian R
(1956- ) UK author who began publishing work of genre interest with "Through" for Interzone in July/August 1989. He has continued publishing short fiction since, the best of this being collected in Voyages by Starlight (1996), Breathmoss and Other Exhalations (2004) and Past Magic (2006). Voyages by Starlight includes "Starship Day" (July 1995 Asimov's), in which a ...
Vaughan, Richard
(? -? ) Author, believed to have been Canadian, who wrote only two known stories, the first being"The Woman from Space" (Spring 1932 Wonder Stories Quarterly) in which Earth is under threat from an errant planet and which features an array of superscientific gadgetry. His far more ambitious second tale was seared into the memories of 1930s Magazine readers as among the best serials of ...
Superman [film]
Film (1978). Dovemead/International Film Production. Directed by Richard Donner. Written by Mario Puzo, David Newman, Leslie Newman, Robert Benton, with Tom Mankiewicz as "creative consultant"; based on a story by Puzo. Cast includes Ned Beatty, Marlon Brando, Jackie Cooper, Gene Hackman, Margot Kidder, Valerie Perrine and Christopher Reeve. 143 minutes. Colour. / Superman's visit to the wide screen was long delayed, ...
Langford, David
(1953- ) UK author, critic, editor, publisher and sf fan, in the latter capacity recipient of 21 Hugo awards for fan writing – some of the best of his several hundred pieces are assembled as Let's Hear It for the Deaf Man (coll 1992 chap US; much exp vt The Silence of the Langford 1996; exp 2015 ebook) as Dave Langford, edited by Ben Yalow – plus five Best Fanzine Hugos ...