SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Wednesday 18 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.
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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. ...
Matrix Reloaded, The
Film (2003). Warner Bros. Pictures in association with Village Roadshow Pictures and NPV Entertainment presents a Silver Pictures production. Andy (now Lilly) Wachowski and Larry (now Lana) Wachowski. Cast includes Laurence Fishburne, Gloria Foster, Carrie-Anne Moss, Keanu Reeves, Jada Pinkett Smith and Hugo Weaving. 133 minutes. Colour. / As the machines burrow towards the human underground city of Zion, Neo and his associates re-enter the Matrix ...
Mutiny in Outer Space
Film (1965). Hugo Grimaldi Film Productions. Directed by Hugo Grimaldi and Arthur C Pierce (uncredited). Written by Arthur C Pierce. Cast includes Carl Crow, Pamela Curran, James Dobson, Dolores Faith, Richard Garland, Glenn Langan and William Leslie. 82 minutes. Black and white. / Astronauts Gordon Towers (Leslie) and Dan Webber (Crow), returning from the Moon with samples from newly discovered "ice caves", stop at Space Station X-7 (see ...
Demure One, The
Pseudonym of the unidentified UK author (? - ) of a Future War tale in the Battle of Dorking mode about the Invasion of the UK by France, via the much-dreaded Channel Tunnel, The Battle of Boulogne: Or How Calais Became English Again: Another Version of the Channel Tunnel Affair (1882 chap). [JC]
Allen, L David
(1940- ) US academic, formerly Instructor in English at the University of Nebraska, and author of various Critical and Historical Works About SF. His first book – written as a Cliffs Notes overview for classroom use – was the useful Science Fiction: An Introduction (1973; vt Science Fiction Reader's Guide 1974). Further nonfiction publications are ...
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 ...