SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Thursday 27 January 2022
Welcome to the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Fourth Edition. Some sample entries appear below. Click here for the Introduction; here for the masthead; here for 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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Vogel, Julius
(1835-1899) UK-born politician, entrepreneur, newspaper editor and author, in Australia from 1852 and New Zealand from 1861, where he spent the bulk of his professional life until 1888, serving as New Zealand Premier 1873-1875 and 1876. His sf novel, Anno Domini 2000, or Woman's Destiny (1889), set partly in New Zealand and Australia, treats the dawning twenty-first century as benignly prosperous, with the Empire benefiting from Airships and instantaneous Communications worldwide. The story ...
Fox, Janet
(1940-2009) US author who began publishing work of genre interest with "Say It With Spiders" for Weirdbook #3 in 1970, most of her many stories being fantasy or horror; a selection from this work has been assembled as Witch's Dozen (coll 2003). Of sf interest is the Sharecropped Scorpio sequence for the Byron Preiss enterprise: Scorpio, an insectoid Alien on the run from his home planet, uses a pilfered Time Travel device to reach Earth, where he visits various historical periods in his quest ...
Kastle, Herbert D
(1924-1987) US author best known outside the genre, who began publishing occasional sf stories with "The York Problem" for If in February 1955. He edited the final two issues of Startling Stories (Summer and Fall 1955). His one sf novel, The Reassembled Man (1964; exp vt Edward Berner Is Alive Again! 1975; vt The Three Lives of Edward Berner 1976) depicts without excessive originality the transformation by aliens of a human into a sexually supercharged Superman. [JC]
Allingham, H J
(1867-1936) UK editor and author, father of Margery Allingham, who wrote stories for boys, sometimes as by Ralph Rollington; his Young Adult sf novel, The Robot Man: Amazing Tale of Peril Abroad (6 July-7 September 1929 Gem Magazine; 1931 chap), about a Mad Scientist who creates a giant Robot in the Amazon, is of moderate interest. [JC/RR] see also: Boys' Friend Library; Boys' Papers. /
Teenage Monster
Film (1957; released 1958; vt Meteor Monster; vt Monster on the Hill). Marquette Productions Ltd/Howco International Pictures. Produced and directed by Jacques Marquette. Written by Ray Buffum. Cast includes Gloria Castillo, Anne Gwynne, Stephen Parker, Gilbert Perkins and Stuart Wade. 65 minutes. Black and white. / In the late 1800s, a meteor crashes to Earth near a small southwestern US town; young Charles Cannon (Parker) and his father investigate. Radiation from the meteorite kills his ...
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 ...