SF Encyclopedia Home Page
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
Sponsor of the day: Andy Richards of Cold Tonnage Books
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 ...
Green Arrow
DC Comics Superhero, created by Mort Weisinger and George Papp in 1941. He has no Superpowers, but his use of modestly innovative Weapons and equipment in battling criminals makes him, like Batman, of marginal sf interest, and of course he had some encounters with Aliens and ...
Ashby, Richard
(? - ) US author who began publishing fiction of genre interest with "A Joke for Harry" in Amazing for September 1949, and who published short fiction actively for several years. His sf novel, Act of God (December 1951-January 1952 Other Worlds; exp 1971), concerns a conspiracy in 2002 to deprive the one man who has gained Immortality of his powerful ...
Making Mr Right
Film (1987). Orion. Directed by Susan Seidelman. Written by Floyd Byars, Laurie Frank. Cast includes Ann Magnuson and John Malkovich. 98 minutes. Colour. / The cold, rational, shy Scientist played by Malkovich has designed, in his own image, Ulysses the Android (actually in part a Robot), also played by Malkovich, for use as a space pilot. Public-relations expert Frankie (Magnuson), whose love ...
McConnell, Ashley
(? - ) US author, mostly of Ties, though her first novel, Unearthed (1992), is supernatural horror; she has also written fantasy. She is probably best known for her Ties to two Television series: Quantum Leap (1989-1993), beginning with Quantum Leap: The Novel (1992; vt Quantum Leap: Carny Knowledge ...
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 ...