SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Saturday 8 August 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 3 August 2026
Sponsor of the day: Paul Giamatti
Abbott and Costello Go to Mars
Film (1953; vt On to Mars). Universal Studios. Directed by Charles Lamont. Written by D D Beauchamp and John Grant, based on a story by D D Beauchamp and Howard Christie. Cast includes Bud Abbott, Mari Blanchard, Lou Costello, Martha Hyer, Joe Kirk, Jack Kruschen and Robert Paige. 77 minutes. Black and white. / Two menial labourers, Orville (Costello) and Lester (Abbott), are inadvertently launched in a Spaceship and land near New Orleans; they ...
Longmate, Norman
(1925-2016) UK author whose works include detective novels but who concentrated on military history, the point of view from which he approaches the Hitler Wins scenario of If Britain Had Fallen (1972), based on the 1972 BBC Television series speculating on the fall of Britain in 1940, after a Nazi Invasion. Longmate's text is remorselessly focused. [JC]
Starshore
US magazine, four issues Summer 1990 to Spring 1991, letter-size, published McAlpine Publishing, Virginia Beach, Virginia; edited by Richard Rowand. The magazine emphasized that it was "for the SF Reader", with the varying shout-line, "Science Fiction for the Enthusiast!!" or "Science Fiction for the Connoisseur!!". The contents, though, were a mix of science fiction (including Hard SF) and borderline sf/fantasy and included the provocative religious fantasy "A ...
Starhunter
Canadian tv series (2000-2001, 2003-2004; vt Starhunter 3200). SpaceWorks Studios/The Danforth Studios Ltd/Alliance Atlantis Communications. Created by Daniel D'Or and Philip Jackson for The Movie Network, Canada. Directors included François Basset, Luc Chalifour and Patrick Malakian. Writers included Julian Fikus, Peter I Horton, and Nelu Ghiran. Cast includes Tanya Allen, David Fournier (season 1), Paul Fox (season 2), Stephen Marcus, Murray Melvin (season 1), ...
Bonanno, Margaret Wander
(1950-2021) US author whose first books were the mainstream feminist novels A Certain Slant of Light (1979), Ember Days (1980) and Callbacks (1981); a later title, Risks (1989), is also nonfantastic. She made her mark on sf with a highly successful Star Trek tie, Dwellers in the Crucible (1985). Two others were soon published: Star Trek: Strangers from the Sky (1987); and ...
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 ...