SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Tuesday 28 November 2023
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.
Site updated on 27 November 2023
Sponsor of the day: Andy Richards of Cold Tonnage Books
Compton, D G
(1930-2023) UK author, born of parents who were both in the theatre; he increasingly lived in the USA after 1981. As Guy Compton, he published some unremarkable detective novels, beginning with Too Many Murderers (1962), and as by Frances Lynch produced some nonfantastic Gothics throughout his career; but soon turned to sf with tales almost always set in the Near Future, and anatomizing moral dilemmas within that arena: the future is very clearly ...
Freitas, Emilia
(1855-1908) Brazilian author whose work has been rediscovered and re-evaluated in recent decades after many years in obscurity. She wrote poetry and articles from an early age, and was very active in the literary life of Fortaleza, the capital of her native State of Ceará, collaborating in Magazines and newspapers, while earning her living as a teacher in public schools in Fortaleza and also in Manaus (the capital of Amazonas) ...
Highwayman, The
US tv series (1987-1988). Glen A Larson Productions/20th Century Fox Television for NBC-TV. Created by Glen A Larson, also executive producer. Directors included Rob Bowman, Douglas Heyes and Larry Shaw. Writers included Larson, Burt Pearl and Steven L Sears. Cast includes Jane Badler, Mark "Jacko" Jackson, Sam J Jones and Tim Russ. Narrator: William Conrad (uncredited). One 90-minute pilot film plus nine 60-minute episodes. Colour. / Sometime in the ...
McDowall, Alistair
(1987- ) UK playwright whose plays tend to incorporate elements of Fantastika into plots often set in North-East England, with an effect of gonzo spoofery. Brilliant Adventures (performed May 2013 Royal Exchange, Manchester; 2013 chap) uses the device of a Time Machine to generate farcical encounters now and in the Near Future; Captain Amazing (August 2013 ...
X – The Man with the X-Ray Eyes
Film (1963; vt The Man with the X-Ray Eyes). Alta Vista, American International Pictures. Directed by Roger Corman. Written by Robert Dillon, Ray Russell, based on a story by Russell. Cast includes John Dierkes (uncredited), John Hoyt, Ray Milland, Don Rickles, Harold J Stone and Diana Van Der Vlis. 88 minutes cut to 80 minutes. Colour. / A surgeon, Dr James ...
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 ...