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Tuesday 21 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 ...
Quaglia, Roberto
(1962- ) Italian author whose first works of genre interest were published in Romanian translation, beginning with Vagabondul interspatial (trans Cornel Nicolau from 1985 manuscript 1994; as Paradoxine: The Adventures of James Vagabond 2009); GOD Ltd (trans Peter de Ville from 1985 manuscript 1992 chap) is a Satire set in Western America about a deity who seems half ...
Serling, Rod
Working name of US screenwriter and Television producer Rodman Edward Serling (1924-1975), younger brother of Robert Serling, married to Carol Serling from 1948 until his death; best known for the Television series The Twilight Zone (1959-1964), for which he won three Hugos in 1960, 1961 ...
McEnroe, Richard S
(1956- ) US author and literary agent who began writing sf with "Wolkenheim Fairday" in Asimov's for May 1980. His first two novels were Ties to the Buck Rogers in the 25th Century universe, the first being Buck Rogers Universe: Niven and Pournelle's Buck Rogers: Warrior's World (1981); both were based on outlines by Larry ...
Mighty Joe Young
Film (1949; vt Mr Joseph Young of Africa). Argosy/RKO. Directed by Ernest B Schoedsack. Written by Ruth Rose, from a story by Merian C Cooper. Cast includes Robert Armstrong, Ben Johnson and Terry Moore. 94 minutes. Black and white, with some tinted sequences. / A virtual remake, though on a smaller scale, of King Kong (1933), by much the same team that produced that classic. The hero organizes a cowboy ...
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 ...