SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Tuesday 21 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 ...
Falling Skies
US tv series (2011-2015). Dreamworks Television 2011-2013, Amblin Television 2014-2015. Created by Robert Rodat. Producers include Greg Beeman, Rodat, Steven Spielberg, and Graham Yost. Directors include Beeman, Sergio Mimica-Gezzan and Fred Toye. Writers include Rodat, Melinda Hsu Taylor and Yost. Cast includes Noah Wyle as Tom Mason, Will Patton as Captain Weaver, Moon Bloodgood as Dr Anne Glass, Peter Shinkoda as Dai, Mpho Koaho as Anthony, ...
Blommedaal, Laurens J
(1956- ) Dutch-born UK author whose The Desperado of the Metal (1991) follows the adventures of a Cyberpunk protagonist through a noir Near Future Britain on the brink of extinction. [JC]
Shadow Men, The
Film (1997). Promark Entertainment Group and Spectacor Films. Directed by Timothy Bond. Written by Eric Miller, Justin Stanley. Cast includes Sherilyn Fenn, Eric Roberts and Dean Stockwell. 91 minutes. Colour. / A drab, low-budget dramatization of the Men in Black (see UFOs) mythology, The Shadow Men plays like a mediocre X-Files (1993-2002) episode expanded to feature length. An American family is abducted by a ...
Wylwynne, Kythe
Pseudonym of UK journalist and author M E F Hyland (? -? ) whose Lost Race tale, The Dream-Woman: A Tale (1901), employs fantasy-like dreams to convey the nature of life Under the Sea in a recently discovered ancient City. Hyland was female. [JC]
Nicholls, Peter
(1939-2018) Australian editor and author, primarily a critic and historian of sf through his creation and editing of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction [see below]; resident in the UK 1970-1988, in Australia from 1988; worked as an academic in English literature (1962-1968, 1971-1977), scripted television documentaries, was a Harkness Fellow in Film-making (1968-1970) in the USA, worked as a publisher's editor (1982-1983), often broadcast film and book reviews on BBC Radio from 1974 and ...