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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.
Site updated on 20 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 ...
First Person Shooter
Term used to describe a form of Videogame distinguished by a three-dimensional character's eye view of the world and fast paced, often violent, gameplay which requires players to react rapidly and acquire physical skills. "First Person" refers to the camera position – as opposed to the third person view of the main character used in most graphical Adventures and ...
Dexter's Laboratory
US animated tv series (1996-2003). Cartoon Network, Hanna-Barbera Cartoons. Created by Genndy Tartakovsky. Directors include Robert Alvarez, John McIntyre, Rob Renzetti, Chris Savino and Genndy Tartakovsky. Writers include Walt Dohrn, Zeke Kamm, Seth MacFarlane, Cindy Morrow, Jason Butler Rote, Michael Ryan, Chris Savino and Genndy Tartakovsky. Voice cast includes Christine Cavanaugh, Kathryn Cressida, Eddie Deezen, ...
Coyle, Harold W
(1952- ) US author who has specialized in Technothrillers hovering at the edge of the Near Future; they include Team Yankee: A Novel of World War III (1987) which – as a Sequel by Another Hand to Sir John Hackett's Third World War novels of the early 1980s – is of interest for the ...
Maugham, Robin
Working name of UK author Robert Cecil Romer Maugham (1916-1981), W Somerset Maugham's nephew; he is best known for a nonfantastic novel, The Servant (1948). His first publication, The 1946 Ms. (1943 chap), describes a Dystopian dictatorship founded, after the end of World War Two, by the British general responsible for defeating Hitler. [JC]
Nicholls, Peter
(1939-2018) Australian editor and author, primarily a critic and historian of sf through his creation and editing of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction [see below]; resident in the UK 1970-1988, in Australia from 1988; worked as an academic in English literature (1962-1968, 1971-1977), scripted television documentaries, was a Harkness Fellow in Film-making (1968-1970) in the USA, worked as a publisher's editor (1982-1983), often broadcast film and book reviews on BBC Radio from 1974 and ...