SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Saturday 11 April 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.
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Captain America: Civil War
Film (2016). Studio Babelsberg and Marvel Entertainment present a Marvel Studios production. Directed by Anthony Russo and Joe Russo. Written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely from the Captain America Comics by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby and the subsequent Civil War storyline by Mark Millar (2006-2007). Cast includes Paul Bettany, Chadwick Boseman, Daniel Brühl, Don Cheadle, ...
Martin, Graham Dunstan
(1932-2021) Scottish academic (lecturer in French at Edinburgh University), translator, philologist and author who began publishing work of genre interest with the Giftwish children's fantasy sequence: Giftwish (1978) and Catchfire (1981), both as Graham Martin. With The Soul Master (1984), as Martin, he moved sf-wards; though the godling-dominated land of Tethesta is described in terms of fantasy. There are ...
Night of the Big Heat
Film (1967; vt Island of the Burning Damned). Planet. Directed by Terence Fisher. Written by Ronald Liles, Pip Baker, Jane Baker, based on The Night of the Big Heat (1959) by John Lymington. Cast includes Patrick Allen, Peter Cushing, Sarah Lawson, Christopher Lee and Jane Merrow. 97 minutes, cut to 94 minutes. Colour. / An island off the UK coast experiences a freak heatwave, during which there are a number of mysterious ...
Hardingham, Edward
(1842-1929) UK poet and author known mainly for Hugh Leventhorpe (1906), a Lost Race romance featuring survivals of the Mayan civilization. [JC]
Van Pelt, James
(1954- ) US teacher and author who began to publish work of genre interest with "No Small Change" in After Hours for January 1991; his short fiction moves smoothly from supernatural horror and Horror in SF through to sf proper, and frequently illuminates his teaching life through a wide application of generic lenses. In "Nor Lender Be" (February 1999 Analog), one of his more powerful (and prescient) ...
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 ...