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Friday 11 July 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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Radin, Max
(1880-1950) Polish-born academic and author, in US from early childhood; of sf interest is The Day of Reckoning (1943), a Near Future tale in which the Nazis have lost World War Two and Hitler (along with his main subordinates) are put on trial for war crimes. Though roughly similar to Michael Foot's The Trial of Mussolini (1943), Radin's book focuses more strongly on ...
Man Beast
Film (1956). Jerry Warren Productions/Associated Producers Inc. Produced by Ralph Brooke and Jerry Warren. Directed by Warren. Written by B Arthur Cassidy. Cast includes George Wells Lewis, Rock Madison (see below), Asa Manor (credited as Virginia Maynor), Tom Maruzzi and George Skaff. 67 minutes. Black and white. / Connie Hayward (Maynor) plans a rescue expedition to search for her missing brother, who vanished in the Himalayas while on a quest for the legendary Abominable Snowman ...
Neptune Factor, The
Film (1973; vt Conquest of the Deeps). Quadrant Films/20th Century Fox Film Corporation. Produced by Sandy Howard. Directed by Daniel Petrie. Written by Jack DeWitt. Cast includes Ernest Borgnine, Ben Gazzara, Yvette Mimieux and Walter Pidgeon. 98 minutes. Colour. / Oceanlab, a laboratory Under the Sea off the eastern coast of Canada, slides into a deep abyss after an earthquake, trapping its three-man crew with only a seven-day supply of ...
James, Roby
Pseudonym of US scriptwriter, spiritual adviser and author Rhoda Blecker (? - ); the Starfire sequence, comprising Commencement (1996) and Commitment (1997), features a young woman with Psi Powers who, after being trained to use them for evil by an interstellar government, learns to use them for good, which benefits all. Beyond the Hedge (2006) is fantasy. [JC]
Outer Space Jitters
Short US film (1957). Columbia Pictures. Directed by Jules White. Written by Jack White. Cast included Emil Sitka, Gene Roth, Philip Van Zandt, Dan Blocker, Moe Howard, Larry Fine, and Joe Besser. 17 minutes. Black and white. / The Three Stooges (at the time Howard, Fine and Besser), have landed on Venus with Professor Jones (Sitka) and promptly discover that the Venusians are planning to conquer Earth with legions of Zombies. ...
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 ...