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Thursday 19 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.
Site updated on 16 June 2025
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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. ...
Cry
US Fanzine (1950-1969) edited by F M Busby, Elinor Busby, Wally Weber and others for the Nameless Ones, a Seattle sf fan group; initially titled Cry of the Nameless but shortened in the mid-1950s. US quarto format, mimeographed. 185 issues, plus a single revival issue in 1989. A local fortnightly, later monthly, journal, Cry's regularity eventually brought it widespread recognition as an entertaining and dependable ...
Automat Na Přání
Czech/French film (1967; vt Les chevaliers des rêves; vt The Wishing Machine 1971 US). Krátký film Praha / Filmové studio Gottwaldov / Société Générale de Production Paris. Directed by Josef Pinkava. Written by Josef Pinkava. Cast includes Rudolf Deyl, Josef Hlinomaz, Miroslav Holub, Vít Weingartner and Milan Zeman. 83 minutes, cut for ...
Welcome to Blood City
Film (1977). An EMI/Len Herberman Production. Directed by Peter Sasdy. Written by Stephen Schneck, Michael Winder. Cast includes Keir Dullea, Samantha Eggar, Barry Morse and Jack Palance. 96 minutes. Colour. / This UK/Canadian coproduction is one of the earlier movies to take Virtual Reality as its theme (but see also Welt Am Draht [1973]). A group of Amnesiacs find themselves in ...
Zhao Haihong
(1977- ) Chinese author, translator from English and teacher, mainly associated with the Gongshang College of Foreign Languages in Hangzhou, who won a Yinhe Award with a landslide victory for her "Yi'ekasida" ["Jocasta"] (March 1999 Kehuan Shijie), and whose short stories dominated the awards for several years thereafter. Her short story "Tui" (2000 Kehuan Shijie trans Zhao ...
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 ...