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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.
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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 ...
Lane, Andy
Working name of UK journalist and author Andrew Lane (1963- ) who began publishing work of genre interest with "Living in the Past" for Doctor Who Magazine in 1990, and who remains best known for his contributions to the Doctor Who universe. These include several Ties, beginning with Doctor Who: The New Adventures: Lucifer Rising (1993) with Jim Mortimore. Among ...
Mechanical Man, The
Italian film (1921). Original title L'Uomo Meccanico. Milano Film. Directed and written by André Deed. Cast includes André Deed, Valentina Frascaroli, Mathilde Lambert and Gabriel Moreau. 60-80 minutes. Black and white (but with colour tinting). About 26 minutes of this movie survive: it had long been considered lost, until parts of the Portuguese version were discovered in Brazil, albeit in poor condition. / When a criminal gang learn a ...
Mannheim, Karl
Pseudonym of the unidentified UK author (? - ) of two sf Space Operas forming the short Venus series: When the Earth Died (1950) and Vampires of Venus (1950). They are modestly competent but hasty. [JC]
Jacobs, Paul Samuel
(? - ) US author whose first novel, Born into Light (1988), intriguingly combines the topos of the Feral Child and that of the Superman (see also Superheroes and the character Superman): a frail naked child tumbles from interstellar space into the home of an Earth couple, who find that he learns with unnatural speed; he and his siblings may ...
Clute, John
(1940- ) Canadian critic, editor and author, in the UK from 1969; married to Judith Clute from 1964, partner of Elizabeth Hand since 1996. He began to publish work of genre interest with an sf-tinged poem "Carcajou Lament" in Triquarterly for Winter 1960 [ie Autumn 1959]; he began consistently publishing sf reviews in his "New Fiction" column for the Toronto Star (1966-1967), and later in ...