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Wednesday 15 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 ...
Near Future
Images of the near future in sf differ markedly from those of the Far Future in both content and attitude. The far future tends to be associated with notions of ultimate destiny, and is dominated by metaphors of senescence; its images display a world irrevocably transfigured. It is viewed from a detached viewpoint; the dominant mood is – paradoxically – one of nostalgia, because the far future, like the dead past, can be entered only imaginatively, and ...
Traill, H D
(1842-1900) UK lawyer, journalist and author, of most interest for his Satires, early examples – like The Israelitish Question: And the Comments of the Canaan Journals Thereon (1876 chap) anonymous tending to spoof contemporary politics through elaborate parodies and anachronisms. The New Lucian: Being a Series of Dialogues of the Dead (coll of linked stories 1884) makes its satirical points through a sustained reworking of the work ...
Yuma, Gary
(? - ) US author of an sf soft-porn Sex novel, Flesh Probe (1973), which explores Gender issues without much penetration. [JC]
Maugham, W Somerset
(1874-1965) French-born physician (he never practised), playwright and author, in UK from late childhood, Robin Maugham's uncle. He remains best known for Of Human Bondage (1915), a rather grim Bildungsroman, partially autobiographical, for The Moon and Sixpence (1919), a fictional portrait of Paul Gauguin (1848-1903), and for Cakes and Ale (1930), a roman à clef whose main target was Hugh Walpole ...
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 ...