SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Friday 29 September 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 25 September 2023
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Collins, Erroll
Pseudonym of UK poet and author Ellen Edith Hannah Redknap (1906-1991), who wrote under her own name The Isle of the Black Pearl (1936 chap) as E E Redknap, which verges on the fantastic. As Erroll Collins she published fiction in magazines from 1937, including several sf adventures like Mariners of Space (1944), a Space Opera describing a War between Earth, Mars and ...
Saramago, José
(1922-2010) Portuguese author who published as a very young man an unmemorable first novel, Terra do Pecado ["Land of Sin"] (1947), and some plays and essays over the next decades, as well as the nonfantastic Levantado do chão (1980; trans Margaret Jull Costa as Raised from the Ground 2012); but only became well-known with his third novel, Memorial do convento ["Memorial of the Convent"] (1982; trans ...
Phillips, L M
(? -? ) US author who seems to have published only two novels, one of which, The Mind Reader (1896), is of sf interest as its hero has, and exercises, the power of Telepathy during his adventures in the American West. The tale eventually moves eccentrically into occult matters, touching on Theosophy en route. [JC]
Woodbury, David O
(1896-1981) US author who began to publish work of genre interest with "The Electric Snare" in Astounding for July 1934, about the Invention of a deadly Ray; in Mr Faraday's Formula: A Dean Riam Suspense Story (1965) enemy agents steal a Gravity-control device. Part of a non-sf series, the book verges on being a Technothriller. [JC]
Mad Max
Film (1979). Mad Max Pty. Directed by George Miller. Written by James McCausland, Miller, based on a story by Miller. Cast includes Tim Burns, Mel Gibson, Hugh Keays-Byrne and Joanne Samuel. 100 minutes, cut to 91 minutes. Colour. / This low-budget exploitation movie builds up to the vigilante-style revenge of spaced-out policeman Max Rockatansky (Gibson) – who is almost as disturbed as his antagonists – on the motorcycle gang that ...
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 ...