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Tuesday 15 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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Packard, Frank L
(1877-1942) Canadian author known almost exclusively for the Jimmy Dale the Gray Seal sequence of thrillers, beginning with "The Gray Seal" (May 1914 People's Magazine), which was later assembled with other stories as The Adventures of Jimmie Dale (coll of linked stories 1917), several further volumes following until 1935. With his secret identity, his "Fortress of Solitude", his hidden wealth, his moral imperatives and his remarkable physical skills, Jimmy Dale ...
Eerie, Indiana
US tv series (1991-1992). Cosgrove/Meurer Productions for NBC-TV. Created by José Rivera. Produced by Rivera, Walter Barnett, Michael Cassutt. Directors included Bob Balaban, Joe Dante, and Mark Goldblatt. Writers included Cassutt, Matt Dearden. Cast includes Julia Condra, Francis Guinan, Mary-Margaret Humes, Omri Katz and Justin Shenkarow. Nineteen 30-minute episodes. Colour. / When the Tellers (Guinan and Humes) move to the small town of Eerie, ...
Total Recall
1. Film (1990). Carolco. Directed by Paul Verhoeven. Written by Ronald Shusett, Dan O'Bannon, Gary Goldman, based on a story by Shusett, O'Bannon, Jon Povill, inspired by "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale" (April 1966 F&SF) by Philip K Dick. Cast includes Ronny Cox, Michael Ironside, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sharon Stone and Rachel Ticotin. 113 minutes, cut to 109 minutes. Colour. / ...
Cicellis, Kay
Working name of Catherine Mathilda Cicellis (1926-2001), French-born author of Greek descent who writes in English. Her sf novel The Day the Fish Came Out (1967), which novelizes The Day the Fish Came Out (1967), is about an H-bomb and the consequences of its loss off a Greek island; it is not up to the standard of her serious work. [JC]
Kantor, MacKinlay
(1904-1977) US author best known for such works outside the sf field as Andersonville (1955), a long novel set during the US Civil War, the area of his deepest concern. That war is also the setting for If the South Had Won the Civil War (22 November 1960 Look; 1961; exp as coll 2001), the Alternate-History thesis of the title being a favourite crux for US writers in the genre; the ...
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 ...