SF Encyclopedia Home Page
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 ...
Star Science Fiction Stories
Original-Anthology series (1953-1959) edited by Frederik Pohl, published by Ballantine Books. Star Science Fiction Stories was the first such series, antedating New Writings in SF by eleven years, and in its example very influential. The series was irregular; after Star Science Fiction Stories (anth 1953), ...
Edelstein, Scott
(1954- ) US editor, poet and author, active almost exclusively in the 1970s, who began to publish work of genre interest with "An Unpleasant End" in New Worlds 6: The Science Fiction Quarterly (anth 1973; vt New Worlds #5 1974) edited by Michael Moorcock and Charles Platt. He has published no novels. His one Anthology, Future Pastimes ...
Masters, John
(1914-1983) Indian-born soldier and author, in the UK from an early age; after serving in World War Two, gaining an OBE in 1945, he resigned his commission with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, moved to the US in 1948 and began a series of novels (theoretically thirty-five in number) about British rule in India; the best-known of these is probably Bhowani Junction (1954). Of sf interest are Near Future thrillers like The Breaking Strain ...
eFanzines.com
Online Fanzine resource founded in December 2000 by UK-born fan Bill Burns (1947- ), long resident in the US, who continues to maintain the website. Though including much historical material, eFanzines.com leans towards archiving contemporary fanzines as they appear, now typically as PDF originals rather than the scans from paper format preferred by the site's chief "rival" The ...
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 ...