SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Monday 20 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 ...
Sky Blue
South Korean animated film (2003; vt Wonderful Days). Tin House, Masquerade Films, Maxmedia. Directed by Kim Moon-saeng. Written by Kim Moon-saeng and Park Jun-Yong. Voice cast includes Kim Byung-kwan, Giri-Bong, Choi Ji Hoon, Yu In-chon, Eun Yeong Seon, Oh In Seong and Tak Won-Je. 86 minutes; director's cut 95 minutes. Colour. / In 2142, a century after civilization's Pollution-inspired collapse, the ...
Masters of the Universe
Film (1987). Cannon. Directed by Gary Goddard. Written by David Odell. Cast includes Billy Barty, Meg Foster, Frank Langella and Dolph Lundgren. 106 minutes. Colour. / Goddard's unfortunate film debut announced itself as the first live-action film to be based on Toys – the He-Man toys made by Mattel; its obvious predecessor was an animated Television series, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe ...
Punch
UK letter-size magazine of Humour and Satire, founded 1841 and first edited by Henry Mayhew (1812-1887) and Mark Lemon (1809-1870). Published weekly 1841-1992, with an unsuccessful revival 1996-2002. / For a century and a half, Punch (initially subtitled The London Charivari) was a British institution which through several of its early decades had considerable influence on UK Politics. The ...
Fisher, Philip M, Jr
(1891-1973) US teacher, naval officer, author and financial auditor (in that order), whose work was restricted primarily to the Pulp magazines. His earliest sale was an article in Youth's Companion in 1916; his first fiction sale, and also his first work of sf, was "The Demise of Professor Manried" for All-Story Weekly, 18 August 1917. Here the eponymous professor is able to use electricity to amplify and harness thought ...
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 ...