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Tuesday 14 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 ...
Bowers, A Herbert
(? -? ) US author of an sf novel, With Gyves of Gold: A Novel (1898) with Henry Athey, both writers remaining untraced, though both may have been based in Missouri; for details of this sf novel, see Athey. [JC]
Algol – Tragedy of Power
German silent film (1920); original title Algol. Tragödie der Macht; vt Power. Deutsche Lichtbild-Gesellschaft. Directed by Hans Werckmeister. Written by Hans Brennert and Fridel Köhne. Cast includes John Gottowt, Käthe Haack, Ernst Hofmann, Emil Jannings, Erna Morena, Hanna Ralph, Hans Adalbert Schlettow and Gertrude Welcker. 112 minutes. Black and white. / A prologue informs us that "circling high and infinitely far shines ...
Houston, David
Pseudonym of US author Houston Force Lumpkin III (1938- ), who produced sf books with some intensity for a few years, though he fell silent after 1982. Generally unremarkable, though competent, his works began with Alien Perspective (1978) and the Gods in a Vortex sf-adventure sequence comprising Gods in a Vortex (1979) and Wingmaster (1981). He then wrote a series of novels Tied to the ...
Martian Chronicles, The
US tv miniseries (1980). NBC TV. Directed by Michael Anderson. Teleplay Richard Matheson, based on The Martian Chronicles (coll of linked stories 1950; rev vt The Silver Locusts 1951) by Ray Bradbury. Cast includes Rock Hudson, Gayle Hunnicutt, Roddy McDowall, Darren McGavin, Bernadette Peters, Nyree Dawn Porter, Joyce van Patten and Fritz Weaver. Three ...
Robinson, Roger
(1943- ) UK computer programmer, bibliographer and publisher, active in UK Fandom for many years. The Writings of Henry Kenneth Bulmer (1983 chap; rev 1984 chap) is an exhaustive Bibliography of one of the most prolific sf writers, Kenneth Bulmer, and Who's Hugh?: An SF Reader's Guide to Pseudonyms (1987) is similarly exhaustive in its ...