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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.
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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 ...
Blum, Ralph
(1932-2016) US screenwriter and author involved in early Drug research, which is reflected in his sf novel The Simultaneous Man (1970). A Black convict undergoes, through advanced brainwashing, a Memory Edit that progressively erases his personality, rather as in Alfred Bester's earlier The Demolished Man (January-March 1952 Galaxy; 1953) or Robert ...
Pitch Black
Film (2000). Polygram Filmed Entertainment presents an Interscope Communications production. Directed by David Twohy. Written by Jim & Ken Wheat and Twohy; story by the Wheats. Cast includes Claudia Black, Keith David, Vin Diesel, Lewis Fitz-Gerald, Rhiana Griffith, Cole Hauser and Radha Mitchell. Theatrical version 110 minutes; Director's Cut 112 minutes. Colour. / Titled Nightfall in its early development, Twohy's film cheekily co-opts ...
Sudbanthad, Pitchaya
(? - ) Thailand journalist and author, now partially resident in the US, who began to publish work of genre interest with "The Beginnings of the World" in Eyeshot for May 2003. He is of sf interest for his first novel, Bangkok Wakes to Rain (2019), a tale, set primarily in Bangkok, whose various narrative threads are separated and conjoined through Reincarnation-like re-embodiments of significant ...
Flipside of Dominick Hide, The
Made-for-tv film (1980). BBC TV. Directed by Alan Gibson. Teleplay Gibson, Jeremy Paul. Cast includes Peter Firth, Pippa Guard, Caroline Langrishe and Patrick Magee. 95 minutes. Colour. / This was an unexpected success, winning several awards. Hide (Firth) travels back in a flying saucer (see UFOs) from the somewhat austere 2130 CE to contemporary London to do historical research. A Candide-figure, he is confused but cheerful about what he finds, falls in ...
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 ...