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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 20 April 2026
Sponsor of the day: Paul Giamatti
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 ...
Malevil
Film (1981). NEF-Diffusion/Stella/Antenne 2/Gibe/Telecip. Directed by Christian de Chalonge. Written by de Chalonge, Pierre Dumayet, based on Malevil (1972; trans 1974) by Robert Merle. Cast includes Robert Dhéry, Jacques Dutronc, Michel Serrault, Jean-Louis Trintignant and Jacques Villeret. 119 minutes. Colour. / This moderately lavish Franco-German Post-Holocaust movie reinforces the ...
Miller, Phyllis
(1920-2001) US librarian and author who collaborated with Andre Norton on three novels for children. Seven Spells to Sunday (1979) and House of Shadows (1984) are Fantasies, the former featuring travel to a magical Dimension and the latter being a supernatural thriller; Ride the Green Dragon (1985) is a nonfantastic tale of mystery and suspense. [DRL]
Ōhara Mariko
(1959- ) Japanese author whose characterization of her own later work as Widescreen Baroque aptly summarizes its poetic whimsy and operatic breadth. However, she has been more influential as a writer on matters of Feminism and Transgender SF, particularly in several Cyberpunk-era speculations on ...
Novacon
Novacon has long been Britain's second regular Convention, held annually since 1971 in November (thus keeping it well distanced from the national UK Eastercon) and named for that month. It is run, or at least the organizing committee is appointed by, the Birmingham Science Fiction Group founded in 1961. Attendance at Novacon 1 in 1971 was 144; the figure has been as high as 495 in 1980, though 300 became typical, with a gradual ...
Langford, David
(1953- ) UK author, critic, editor, publisher and sf fan, in the latter capacity recipient of 21 Hugo awards for fan writing – some of the best of his several hundred pieces are assembled as Let's Hear It for the Deaf Man (coll 1992 chap US; much exp vt The Silence of the Langford 1996; exp 2015 ebook) as Dave Langford, edited by Ben Yalow – plus five Best Fanzine Hugos ...