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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.
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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 ...
Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea
Japanese animated film (2008; vt Ponyo); original title Gake no Ue no Ponyo. Studio Ghibli. Directed and written by Hayao Miyazaki. Voice cast includes Yūki Amami, Hiroki Doi, Yuria Nana and George Tokoro. 101 minutes. Colour. / Whilst playing by the sea, five-year-old Sōsuke (Doi) finds a trapped fish whose head appears almost human. Rescuing it, he cuts his finger, which the fish licks. He names ...
Adair, Hazel
Pseudonym of India-born actor, television producer, scriptwriter and author Hazel Joyce Marriott (1920-2015), in the UK from infancy, perhaps best known for her co-creation with Peter Ling of the British daily television serial Crossroads (1964-1988); she also wrote as by Clare Nicol and Klaus Vogel. Of sf interest is Stranger from Space (1953) with Ronald Marriott (her husband), about a young Alien from Mars who is ...
Whitbourn, John
(1958- ) UK author who began to publish work of genre interest with "Waiting for a Bus" in The Third Book of After Midnight Stories (anth 1987) edited by Amy Myers. The tale initiates the long Binscombe Tales sequence, some of them orthodox Club Stories, set near the author's home town of Godalming, Surrey, during the course of which a newcomer to this node point of the true England is conducted through adventures, ...
Hyde, Mark Powell
(1881-1952) US author in whose Young Adult novel, The Strange Inventor: A Curious Adventure Story (1927), Merlin Time Travels incognito to the twentieth century, where he meets the young protagonist, and amazes him with the engineless car (another of his Inventions) in which he carries him away. The two visit the future, where adventures are had, and the past, ditto. Merlin himself is a ...
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 ...