SF Encyclopedia Home Page
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 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 ...
Play by Email
Term used to describe a game in which the players communicate by electronic means, but not in real time. Thus, all messages sent in a Play By Email game are subject to delays resembling those imposed by a physical postal system. For convenience, this encyclopedia uses the term to cover any electronic form of communication, including email and entering information on a website, whether handled manually by the player or automatically by the game software. In essence, Play By Email is identical to ...
1899
German tv series (2022-current). A Dark Ways production for Netflix. Created by Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese. Directed by Baran bo Odar. Written by Odar and Friese. Other writers are Emil Nygaard Albertsen, Jerome Bucchan-Nelson Dario, Juliana Lima Dehne, Madrona López Gallego, Emma Ko. Cast includes Emily Beecham, Aneurin Barnard, Jonas Bloquet, Miguel Bernardeau, Fflyn Edwards, Yann Gael, Anton Lesser, Maciej Musial, Matthilde Ollivier, José ...
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
Animated film (2009). Sony Pictures Animation/Columbia Pictures. Directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller. Written by Lord and Miller. Cast includes Anna Faris and Bill Hader. 90 minutes. Colour. / Lord and Miller made their Cinema debut with this loose adaptation of Judi and Ron Barrett's children's book Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (1978), having previously written and directed the animated Television ...
Adventures of Captain Marvel
US Serial Film (1941). Republic Pictures. Directed by John English and William Witney. Associate producer: Hiram S Brown Jr. Written by Ronald Davidson, Norman S Hall, Arch B Heath, Joseph Poland and Sol Shor based on the Comics character Captain Marvel created by C C Beck and Bill Parker (both uncredited). Cast includes Frank Coghlan Jr, Nigel De Brulier, Gerald Mohr (voice, uncredited) and ...
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 ...