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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
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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 ...
Casey, Patrick
(1892-1941) US author, mostly of adventure stories, sometimes with genre shadings, as in "The Island of Lost Ones" (December 1936-?? 1937 Mystery Adventures). With his brother, Terence Casey (1895-1945), he wrote a Lost Race novel, The Strange Story of William Hyde (December 1915-March 1916 Adventure Magazine; 1916), featuring female descendants of the Khans; the explorer protagonist falls in love with the queen of the lost ...
Swan, Christopher
(1946- ) US author whose Near Future tale of redemptive Ecology, YV88 (1977) with Chet Roaman, describes the transformation of the eponymous Yosemite Valley National Park by 1988 into an enclave no longer savaged by roads, rampant tourism, exploitation. A light railroad system replaces cars; the environmentally destructive O'Shaughnessy Dam. The vision was attractive, but as advocacy the book failed ...
Richardson, Michael
(1946-2017) UK librarian, author, editor and bibliographer, in Canada from 1976, who began to publish work of genre interest with the bibliography CDN SF&F: A Bibliography of Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy (1979) with Alexandre L Amprimoz, John Bell and John Robert Colombo. With Colombo he edited ...
Sunshine
Film (2007). Fox Searchlight Pictures presents a DNA Films production in association with the UK Film Council. Directed by Danny Boyle. Written by Alex Garland. Cast includes Rose Byrne, Cliff Curtis, Chris Evans, Troy Garity, Cillian Murphy, Hiroyuki Sanada, Mark Strong, Benedict Wong and Michelle Yeoh. 107 minutes. Colour. / Theoretical physicist Robert Capa (Murphy) is part of a last-ditch eight-person rescue effort to save Earth from solar winter ...
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 ...