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Friday 20 September 2024
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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Slingshot Ending
A term initially used by Kim Stanley Robinson when attempting to describe the typical ending of a Gene Wolfe tale. The Book of the New Sun (1980-1983 4vols), There Are Doors (1988) and Exodus from the Long Sun (1996) all close as their protagonists begin to move towards a goal which has been anticipated from the beginning. But they move out of frame, out of the end of the book, ...
Braswell, Liz
(? - ) UK-born Videogame producer and author, in America from childhood; known for her series under various pseudonyms, which include Tracy Lynn, J B Stephens, Celia Thomson and the House Name Robb Kidd. Of greatest sf interest is the Big Empty sequence, all as by J B Stephens, and beginning with The Big Empty (2004), a Young Adult series ...
Siu Gaa
(? - ) Unknown and presumably pseudonymous author, known only for their short story "Ngomun dik Sidoi" ["Our Era"] (2020 Gongjyuhok web), a brief Satire concerning a tourist in 2050, unable to find historical sites in Hong Kong because all the names have been changed. Siu's characters are confused by deliberate rebrandings and also by misprisions brought about by ignorance – a street sign that identifies "Alexander ...
Mask of Fu Manchu, The
Film (1932). Cosmopolitan/MGM. Directed by Charles Brabin, Charles Vidor. Written by Irene Kuhn, Edgar Allen Woolf, John Willard, based on The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932) by Sax Rohmer. Cast includes Jean Hersholt, Boris Karloff, Myrna Loy, Karen Morley and Lewis Stone. 72 minutes, cut to 67 minutes. Black and white. / Rohmer's Oriental Supervillain has since been brought ...
Hall, George Rome
(1864-1938) UK author of a Future War tale, The Black Fortnight; Or, the Invasion of 1915 (1904), Germany being the invader. [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 ...