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Saturday 18 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 ...
Woods, Margaret L
(1856-1945) UK poet and author, of some sf interest for The Invader (1907) a tale involving enforced Identity Transfer; the invading personality eventually destroys the tame protagonist through marriage-destroying wild behaviour. Come Unto These Yellow Sands (1915) is Fantasy. [JC]
Pythagorolunister
Pseudonym of the author (? - ), possibly John Kirkby, of a Proto SF text involving Space Flight, Journey to the World in the Moon: A Dream, Containing an Historical Relation, (as received from a Lunar Philosopher) from above a Hundred Years last past, to the present Time, of the most Material Occurrences, as to the Religion, Politics ...
Ure, Jean
(1943- ) UK author of a wide range of fiction for Young Adult readers, her active career beginning with the nonfantastic Dance for Two (1960) and continuing for well over half a century. Relatively little of her work is of sf interest, the main exception being the dark Plague 99 sequence comprising Plague 99 (1989; vt Plague 1991), Come Lucky April (1992; vt ...
Yelverton, Christopher
Pseudonym of unidentified UK author (? -? ), who may or may not be related to the historical English political figures, Sir Christopher Yelverton (1536-1612) and his grandson, Sir Christopher Yelverton, 1st Baronet (? -1654). The dreaming protagonist of Oneiros; Or, Some Questions of the Day (1889) finds himself translated a millennium hence to another planet (see Life on Other Worlds), ...
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 ...