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Monday 20 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 ...
Barnes, Colin F
(? - ) UK author whose first series, the Techxorcist sequence beginning with Artificial Evil (2012) is set in an artificial world-dominating domed City (see Keep); renamed, the essential overall story seems to continue in the Code Breakers sequence beginning with Code Breakers: Prequel (2014 chap) and Alpha (2014), placed in the same ...
Lost Worlds [comic]
US Comic (1952). Standard Comics. Two issues, numbered #5 and #6 (see Fantastic Worlds for more information). Artists include Ross Andru, John Celardo, Jack Katz, Art Saaf and Alex Toth. Four comic strips and one text story per issue, plus one-page non-fiction strips and a cartoon strip. / In #5's opening story "The City that Escaped Tomorrow" a strange hoop of light appears in a quiet ...
Taylor, Angus
(1945- ) Canadian critic and academic; involved in Canadian Fandom from the 1960s through the 1980s; with the Spaced Out Library (now the Merril Collection of Science Fiction, Speculation and Fantasy) 1972-1975. He began to publish reviews of genre interest in Moebius Trip Library: Science Fiction Echo 17 for May 1973 (see Moebius Trip). His sharp, socio-political ...
Planet of Dinosaurs
Film (1978). Deathbeast Productions. Produced and directed by James K Shea. Written by Ralph Lucas from a story by Jim Aupperle. Creature effects by Doug Beswick and Jim Danforth (uncredited). Cast includes Mary Appleseth, Louie Lawless, Chuck Pennington, Max Thayer and James Whitworth. 83 minutes. Colour. / When the Starship Odyssey's reactor goes critical, nine of the crew manage to escape just before it disintegrates. Their shuttle-craft ...
Robinson, Roger
(1943- ) UK computer programmer, bibliographer and publisher, active in UK Fandom for many years. The Writings of Henry Kenneth Bulmer (1983 chap; rev 1984 chap) is an exhaustive Bibliography of one of the most prolific sf writers, Kenneth Bulmer, and Who's Hugh?: An SF Reader's Guide to Pseudonyms (1987) is similarly exhaustive in its ...