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Sunday 22 June 2025
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.
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Forsyth, Frederick
(1938-2025) UK author who gained fame with his first novel, The Day of the Jackal (1971), and whose books are generally political thrillers. The Shepherd (1975 chap), however, is a sentimental Timeslip or ghost fantasy in which a pilot on Christmas Eve 1957 is saved from crashing by a World War Two pilot in an antique bomber: pilot and plane had been shot down on the Christmas Eve of 1943. ...
Takei, George
(1937- ) US actor and author, best known for his role as Mr Sulu in the original Star Trek. Mirror Friend, Mirror Foe (1979) with Robert Lynn Asprin places a Japanese mercenary and ninja in a free-for-all Near Future corporate world. To the Stars: The Autobiography of George Takei, Star Trek's Mr. Sulu (1994), though focusing on the ...
Bennett, Margot
(1912-1980) Scottish screenwriter, journalist and author, her first novel being a crime novel, Time to Change Hats (1945); most of her subsequent work, in a subtle and atmospheric style, was in the same genre. A fantasy story, "An Old-Fashioned Poker for My Uncle's Head" (August 1946 Lilliput), was reprinted in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in May 1954. Her first sf novel, The Long Way Back (1954), has become well ...
Gravity [film]
American film (2013). Warner Brothers/Esperanto Filmoj/Heyday Films. Directed by Alfonso Cuarón. Written by Alfonso Cuarón and Jonás Cuarón. Cast includes Sandra Bullock, George Clooney and Ed Harris (voice only). 90 minutes. Colour. / In an undefined Near Future (or perhaps, an undefined alternate near past; see Alternate History), America is still operating a space shuttle and the ...
Henley, Carra Depuy
(1869-1905) US author of A Man from Mars (1901 chap), in which a Utopia on Mars is described, in terms involving some mysticism and some cod science regarding levitation. [JC]
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 ...