SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Saturday 23 September 2023
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.
Site updated on 18 September 2023
Sponsor of the day: Andy Richards of Cold Tonnage Books
Spider-Man 2
Film (2004). Columbia Pictures presents a Marvel Enterprises/Laura Ziskin production. Directed by Sam Raimi. Written by Alvin Sargent, based on the Marvel Comic book by Stan Lee, Steve Ditko. Cast includes Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Tobey Maguire and Alfred Molina. 127 minutes. Colour. / Spider-Man 2, Raimi's idiosyncratic sequel, sees Peter Parker (Maguire) deal with the problems ...
Brooks, Byron A
(1845-1911) US inventor (he invented the shift key for the typewriter) and author of Earth Revisited (1893), a Sleeper Awakes tale which espouses a somewhat garbled revision of Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward (1888); the reawakened protagonist, after falling in love with his nurse, realizes that she is the Reincarnation of a lost love. All ends well. [JC]
Beresford, Leigh
Pseudonym of John Leigh Everett (circa 1941- ), an author whose single sf novel for Robert Hale Limited is Fantocine (1981), a picaresque tale of a born peculator or thief told somewhat in the ornate manner of Jack Vance. [DRL]
Deadly Mantis, The
Film (1957). Universal-International Pictures. Produced by William Alland. Directed by Nathan Juran. Written by Martin Berkeley and Alland (uncredited). Cast includes William Hopper, Craig Stevens and Alix Talton. 79 minutes. Black and white. / A volcano erupts in the Southern Pacific, somehow causing a break-up of ice near the North Pole which frees a 200-foot-long prehistoric praying mantis (see Great and Small) from a state of ...
Anderson, Kevin J
(1962- ) US technical author and author, married to Rebecca Moesta; he began publishing sf with "Luck of the Draw" in Space and Time (Winter 1982/1983 #63), and gradually became a prolific contributor of short fiction and articles to various sf journals, over 100 items having been published by 1992. His first novel, Resurrection, Inc. (1988; vt ...
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 ...