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Thursday 5 October 2023
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Rivas, Manuel Antonio de
(circa 1707-? ) Mexican Franciscan friar and author of one Proto SF short story. In his time, his surname could also be written Ribas. The only biographical information Rivas appears in depositions opened against him by the Inquisition of New Spain (see Mexico) between 1773 and 1778. It seems probable that he was born in New Spain at the beginning of the eighteenth century, because in a 1777 letter he declared ...
Island of Lost Souls
Film (1932). Paramount. Directed by Erle C Kenton. Written by Waldemar Young, Philip Wylie, based on The Island of Dr Moreau (1896) by H G Wells. Cast includes Richard Arlen, Kathleen Burke, Leila Hyams, Alan Ladd, Charles Laughton, Bela Lugosi and Randolph Scott. 72 minutes. Black and white. / Though somewhat altered from the Wells original, and adding such Hollywood touches as a seductive Panther Girl, ...
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Film (2014). Twentieth Century Fox in association with TSG Entertainment. Directed by Matt Reeves. Written by Mark Bomback and Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver, based on characters created by Jaffa & Silver. Cast includes Jason Clarke, Toby Kebbell, Karin Konoval, Gary Oldman, Keri Russell, Andy Serkis, Kodi Smit-McPhee and Nick Thurston. 130 minutes. Colour, 3D. / Ten years after the events of Rise of the Planet of the Apes ...
Toynbee, Polly
(1946- ) UK investigative journalist and author; she is of the fourth generation of Toynbees to be involved in literature. Leftovers (1966) depicts with feeble verve the mixed destinies of a group of youths, survivors of a poisonous gas (see Poison) which has destroyed the rest of humanity. [JC]
Sakurazaka Hiroshi
(1970- ) Japanese author and former computer engineer, whose school-for-sorcerers novella was published as Yoku Wakaru Gendai Mahō ["Modern Magic Made Simple"] (fixup 2003) after winning the Shūeisha Super Dash New Novelist competition under the title "Mahō Tsukai no Net" ["Wizard's Web"]. / His "Saitama Chainsaw Shōjo" ["Saitama Chainsaw Girl"] (September 2004 S-F Magazine) won the publication's ...
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 ...