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Tuesday 17 February 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 16 February 2026
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Swift, Morrison I
(1856-1946) US political thinker, agitator and author whose early anarchism, which brought him fame, decayed in his old age into antisemitic fascism; his novels come from his earlier years. He published three novels of some interest: A League of Justice; Or, Is It Right to Rob the Robbers? (1893) is set in a Near Future America bedevilled by inequality, but transformed into a just society by the eponymous league, which robs the rich and gives to the ...
Watson, Aaron
(1850-1926) UK journalist and author, active from the earl 1870s; he is of sf interest for For Lust of Gold [for subtitle see Checklist below] (1 November 1888-16 February 1889 The Shields Daily Gazette; 1892), a Lost Race tale, set in Elizabethan times, which describes the discovery of the hidden City of Manoa, where treasure is found but discord mounts. [JC]
Lalley, Paul
(? - ) US author of a Disaster thriller, The Colony (1979), which features the destruction of a small town by a plague of abnormal Ants, who may be governed by a Hive Mind. [JC]
Scott, Deborah
(? - ) US teacher and author of the Young Adult California Kid sequence comprising The Kid Who Got Zapped through Time (1997) and The California Kid Fights Back (1998), in which the Kid is sent by his Computer by Timeslip to mediaeval England, which he disdains, and when he is sent back again, in the second volume, hates all the ...
Birds, The
Film (1963). Universal. Director Alfred Hitchcock. Written by Evan Hunter, based on The Birds (October 1952 Good Housekeeping; 1996 chap) by Daphne du Maurier. Cast includes Tippi Hedren, Suzanne Pleshette, Jessica Tandy and Rod Taylor. 119 minutes. Colour. / Ordinary birds in a small seaside town near San Francisco (see ...
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 ...