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Thursday 16 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 ...
Kratman, Tom
(1956- ) US professional soldier from the age of seventeen, retiring in 1992 with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, and author, most of whose work has been Military SF, including his first novel, A State of Disobedience (2003), which details the process of a revolution against a tyrannical US president in 2060. Series include the Legacy of the Aldenata with John Ringo (whom see for details ...
Machen, Arthur
(1863-1947) Welsh translator, actor and author, born Arthur Llewellyn Jones, his parents adding Machen apparently in an attempt to please a rich relative. The Welsh landscape of his childhood visually dominated his writings all his life, serving as a body English of the ecstasy of reality or realities only "visible" through words that meant more than they could literally say. He was in London for long periods from 1880. The death of his father in 1887 provided him with enough money to marry and ...
Golem
The Jewish legend of the Golem comprises a set of Proto-SF stories about the maker and the made. Several well-known rabbis and Judaic scholars of the Middle Ages and early Renaissance had Golem stories ascribed to them, the most elaborate cycle being that connected with Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel (1512-1609), the Maharal of Prague, a controversial and admired sage and community leader. "His" version of the Golem, Joseph, is an ...
Dirty Pair
Japanese animated tv series (1985). Based on the stories by Haruka Takachiho. Nippon Sunrise. Directed by Norio Kashima and Toshifumi Takizawa. Writers include Toshiki Inoue, Toshimichi Okawa and Michiru Shimada. Voice cast includes Saeko Shimazu and Kyouko Tonguu. 26 25-minute episodes. Colour. / The Lovely Angels are Kei (Tonguu) and Yuri (Shimazu), highly trained Trouble Consultants for the galaxy-wide Worlds Welfare ...
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 ...