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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. ...
Immortal, The
US tv series (1969-1971). Paramount/ABC TV. Concept based on the novel The Immortals (fixup 1962) by James E Gunn. Executive producer Tony Wilson. Produced by Lou Morheim. Directors included Joseph Sargent (pilot), Mike Caffey. Writers included Robert Specht, Stephen Kandel, Dan Ullman. Cast includes David Brian, Christopher George, Don Knight, Carol Lynley and Barry Sullivan. 75-minute pilot, followed by 15 50-minute episodes. Colour. / ...
Super Mario Bros.
Film (1993). Lightmotive/Allied Filmmakers in association with Cinergi Productions and Hollywood Pictures (see The Walt Disney Company). Produced by Jake Eberts and Roland Joffe. Directed by Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel. Written by Parker Bennett & Terry Runte and Ed Solomon based on the concept and characters created by Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka of Nintendo. Cast includes Dennis Hopper, Bob Hoskins, John Leguizamo, Samantha ...
Pargin, Jason
(1975- ) US author whose early work was published as by David Wong; from 2021 he has used his own name for new work and reprints of earlier tales. The Almost Armageddon sequence beginning with John Dies at the End (2007) as by Wong follows the elaborately antic careers of a team devoted to fending of an Invasion of Aliens who may bring about the ...
Williams, Billy Dee
Working name of US actor and author William December Williams (1937- ), best known for playing Lando Calrissian in Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back (1980) et cetera. He co-wrote with Rob MacGregor the Trent Calloway series beginning with OSI Net (1999), about American intelligence operatives gifted (or cursed) with ...
Clute, John
(1940- ) Canadian critic, editor and author, in the UK from 1969; married to Judith Clute from 1964, partner of Elizabeth Hand since 1996. He began to publish work of genre interest with an sf-tinged poem "Carcajou Lament" in Triquarterly for Winter 1960 [ie Autumn 1959]; he began consistently publishing sf reviews in his "New Fiction" column for the Toronto Star (1966-1967), and later in ...