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Thursday 16 July 2026
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 14 July 2026
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Wild in the Streets
Film (1968). American International Pictures (AIP). Directed by Barry Shear. Written by Robert Thom from his own story, "The Day It All Happened, Baby!" (original publication not found). Cast includes Hal Holbrook, Christopher Jones, Millie Perkins, Richard Pryor, Diane Varsi and Shelley Winters. 97 minutes. Colour. / Senator Johnny Fergus (Holbrook), a Kennedy-style senator from ...
Steel, Mark
Almost certainly a pseudonym of the otherwise unidentified UK author (? - ) of Trouble Planet (1954), in which an agent, sent on a mission to Mars, reminisces about his cadet training on a Space Station while dealing with Aliens who live on an Asteroid. [JC]
Huff, Tanya
(1957- ) Canadian author whose wife Fiona Patton (1962- ) writes fantasy exclusively. She began publishing work of genre interest with "What Little Girls are Made Of" for Magic in Ithkar 3 (anth 1986) edited by Robert Adams and Andre Norton. Most of her subsequent work has also been fantasy, beginning with the Novels of Crystal sequence ...
Human Torch, The
US Comic (1940-1949 [#2-#35], 1954 [#36-#38]). Initially Timely Comics, later Marvel Comics. 38 issues numbered #2-#38: the cover of #2 says "Fall Number"; #3 "Winter Number"; #4 is numbered 3 and there are two numbered '5', the first labelled "Summer Issue". Artists include Carl Burgos, Bill Everett, Al Gabriele, Harry Sahle, Alex Schomburg, Allen Simon and Mike Sekowsky. Script writers include ...
Carlson, Dale
(1935-2022) US author who sometimes published her nonfiction as Dale Bick Carlson; her work is primarily designed for Young Adult audiences, like the Jenny Dean sequence of juvenile mysteries beginning with The Mystery of the Shining Children (1983) and ending with The Secret of the Invisible City (1984). Some of her earlier singletons are of stronger sf interest, such as ...
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 ...