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Wednesday 22 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 ...
Collectible Miniatures Game
Term used to describe a form of Wargame which uses miniatures collectible in the manner of a Collectible Card Game (see also Collectibles). Thus the figures are sold in packs, some of which contain rare items distributed at random; this practice encourages the purchase of multiple packs. Figures are sold fully assembled and painted, in contrast to traditional ...
Lost Missile, The
Film (1958). William Berke Productions, Inc/United Artists. Produced by William A Berke and Leo Gordon. Directed by Lester William Berke. Written by Jerome Bixby, and John McPartland from an original story by Lester William Berke. Special effects by Jack Glass. Cast includes Robert Loggia, Ellen Parker and Phillip Pine. Narrator: Lawrence Dobkin. 70 minutes. Black and white. / An unidentified missile or missile-like object is detected in near-Earth ...
Creswick, Paul
(1866-1947) UK author, who began publishing work of some genre interest with "The Only Prince" for The Quarto in 1897. Robin Hood and His Adventures (1902; vt Robin Hood 1917) is one of the finest adaptations of the cycle; The Beaten Path: A Fantasy (1924) is a capable ghost story. His only Scientific Romance, The Turning Wheel (1928), is of interest for its combination of mystical themes with ...
Hoch, Edward D
(1930-2008) US author best known for his crime novels and stories; his first story, "Village of the Dead" in Famous Detective Stories for December 1955, introduces Simon Ark, an Occult Detective [see The Encyclopedia of Fantasy under links below] who claims to be a 2000-year-old Coptic priest. Some of these stories are collected in The Judges of Hades and Other Simon Ark Stories (coll 1971), ...
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 ...