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Tuesday 14 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 more than 180 short stories since 1969 at a gradually increasing tempo and with visibly ...
Milligan, Spike
Working name of Indian-born Irish author and comic Terence Alan Milligan (1918-2002), who first became famous for his central role as both principal author and one of the stars of the Radio comedy The Goon Show (initially Crazy People) broadcast on BBC Radio from 1951 to 1960. These episodes generally exhibit surreal rather than science-fictional Humour; partial exceptions in the form of explicit sf/fantasy ...
Lever, Peter
(1972- ) UK editor and author whose first novel, Me Cheeta: The Autobiography (2009) as by Cheeta, is an Apes as Human tale narrated by Cheeta (as impersonated by various chimpanzees in Tarzan Films from 1932), looking back on his life from the age of 76; the poignance of his love for Johnny Weissmuller (1904-1984) contrasts, at times savagely, with his Satirical ...
Balint, Emery
(1892-1982) US painter and author of Hungarian origins; it is not known if he himself emigrated from Hungary, as his first novel, the phantasmagoric Alpha (trans Louis Rittenberg 1927), may have been translated from manuscript. His sf novel is Don't Inhale It! (1949), in which a nuclear test accidentally splits Earth in sparring planetoids; Satire is intended. [JC]
NESFA Press
NESFA Press is the publishing division of NESFA, the long-established New England Science Fiction Association, Inc. This major US Small Press publishes work in three main categories. First came reference works and Bibliographies, beginning with such indexes as The NESFA Index to the Science Fiction Magazines and Original Anthologies, 1966 (1969) compiled by Anthony R ...
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 ...