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Thursday 16 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 ...
Future Sound of London, The
Also known as FSOL. UK dance music group comprising Garry Cobain (1966- ) and Brian Dougans (1968- ). FSOL's collage of instrumental musical styles is often rhythmically (if complexly) robotic, appropriate to its primary use in dance clubs and at raves. Some of the group's apparent sf qualities reveal themselves, on closer analysis, to have more mundane explanations – for example their early album Tales of Ephidrina (1993) ...
Science Fact & Science Fiction Concatenation, The
UK Fanzine/Newszine edited by Tony Chester, Graham Connor (until his death in late 2018) and Jonathan Cowie. Launched at the 1987 UK Eastercon as a nominally annual A4 print publication with nine issues to 1997 (skipping 1995 and 1996); after a two-year hiatus it migrated online in 1999. Currently updated each academic term: spring, summer and autumn. / Print editions of SF² Concatenation ...
Return, The
Russian animated film (1980; original title Vozvrashchenie). Soyuzmultfilm. Directed by Vladimir Tarasov. Written by Boris Ryakhovsky. Voice cast includes Viktor Balashov, Aleksandr Kaydanovskiy and Vasiliy Livanov. 10 minutes. Colour. / Following a trip to Jupiter a cosmonaut is returning to Earth. However, his Spaceship is hit by meteorites, disabling ...
Jones, Claude P
(1870-1945) US physician and author of a Near Future adventure, Banduk Jaldi Banduk! (Quick My Rifle!) (1907; vt The Countersign: A Story of Tibet 1909) with A L Sykes, whose American-born heroine, believing herself to be a reincarnation of Kubla Khan, frees Tibet from China with the help of an amorous American who arrives by Balloon. [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 ...