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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 ...
Williams, Mark London
(1959- ) US playwright, journalist and author of whose various work the Young Adult Danger Boy sequence beginning with Ancient Fire (2001) is of sf interest. The young protagonist, son of the inventor whose Invention is a Time Machine, is forced by a combination of Time Travel and portal transfer into an ...
Bowers, John
(? - ) US author, most of whose Westerns have been Space Operas, all assembled in series; the first of these is The Fighter Queen Saga beginning with A Vow to Sophia (2009). The most sustained is the Nick Walker, United Federation Marshall sequence beginning with Sirian Summer (2011), a Planetary Romance set on the ...
Tarkovsky, Andrei
(1932-1987) Russian film-maker. A graduate of the Soviet State Film School, Tarkovsky attained prominence in Russia with his first film, Ivanovo Detstvo (1962; vt Ivan's Childhood; vt My Name Is Ivan), the story of an orphan cut off behind enemy lines during World War Two. With his next feature, Andrei Roublev (1966; release delayed until 1971), Tarkovsky fell foul of the Soviet censors with his dark vision of the life of the ...
MacGregor, Ellen
(1906-1954) US author of children's fiction, most notably the Miss Pickerell sequence beginning with Miss Pickerell Goes to Mars (May 1950 Liberty Magazine as "Swept Her Into Space"; much exp 1951). Lavinia Pickerell, a highly adventurous New England spinster, finds herself travelling to Mars, Under the Sea, and elsewhere; her interest in these adventures is always focused on their scientific implications, ...
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 ...