SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Saturday 18 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 ...
Miller, Joseph D
(? - ) US associate professor in the Department of Cell and Neurobiology at the American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine, former NASA space shuttle project director 1982-1987, and scholar of sf who began to publish criticism of genre interest with "Parallel Universes: Fantasy or Science Fiction?" in the Eaton Conference Papers volume Intersections: Fantasy and Science Fiction (anth 1987) edited by George E ...
Allais, Alphonse
(1854-1905) French journalist and author, mostly of humorous pieces; his newspaper column, La Vie Drôle ["The Funny Life"] contained many skits and spoofs and other pieces, often fantastical. The various tales about Captain Cap appeared in this column and in other similar venues. Cap is based on a real person – Albert Caperon (1864-1898), a much-travelled adventurer and man about town – and Allais retired Captain Cap tales after Caperon's death, though he ...
Strange World of Your Dreams, The
US Comic (1952-1953). 4 issues. Headline Publications Inc. "Produced by Simon & Kirby. Morton Meskin Associate Editor." Artists include Jack Kirby, Bob McCarthy, Mort Meskin, Ben Oda and Joe Simon. Scriptwriters include Jack Kirby and Jack Oleck. 36 pages. Each issue would have 2-3 "Richard Temple" dream analysis features, as well as 2-3 other strips and 2 short text stories; #3 also had one-page on "How the Stars Affect Your Job", ...
Ryan, Carrie
(1978- ) US author of a Young Adult Dystopian sequence – the Forest of Hands and Teeth series comprising The Forest of Hands and Teeth (2009), The Dead-Tossed Waves (2010) and The Dark and Hollow Places (2011) – set initially, some generations after a civilization-destroying Disaster, in a ...
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 ...