SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Wednesday 12 August 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 10 August 2026
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Crowley, John
(1942-2026) US teacher and author who also worked in documentary films and television for some time beginning in 1966. His sf novels have had a considerable impact on the field, and his fantasies established him as a figure whose work courteously but deeply stretched the boundaries of genre literature. / His first novel, The Deep (1975), is set on a flat discworld resting on a pillar that extends beyond measurement into the circumambient galactic Deep, in which very few stars ...
Man from Planet X, The
Film (1951). Mid-Century Films. Directed by Edgar G Ulmer. Written by Aubrey Wisberg and Jack Pollexfen. Cast includes Raymond Bond, Robert Clarke, Margaret Field and William Schallert. 70 minutes. Black and white. / As the wandering Planet X approaches Earth, an Alien (actor unknown and uncredited) from the planet lands his Spaceship at the place where his world will come closest to Earth, in rural Scotland. This location ...
Reid, Leslie
(1895-1977) Indian-born author, much travelled, who eventually settled in the UK; in active service during World War One. Two of his early novels – The Rector of Maliseet (1925) and Trevy the River (1928), which features a Mysterious Stranger who fathers a mystery-haunted wandering son – are of supernatural interest. His Scientific Romance ...
Perkins, Sheldon
(? - ) US author of a Space Opera, Polaris (1979), in which an interstellar Starship representing the America-dominated United Space Alliance, and commanded by an Earth-first captain, finds itself in need of repairs. A mysterious Big Dumb Object, clearly Alien, is then encountered in deep space. [JC]
Atlantis, the Lost Continent
Film (1961). Galaxy/MGM. Directed and produced by George Pal. Written by Daniel Mainwaring, based on Atalanta: A Story of Atlantis: A Fantasy with Music (1949), a play by Sir Gerald Hargreaves. Cast includes John Dall, Anthony Hall, Ed Platt and Joyce Taylor. 90 minutes. Colour. / A young Greek fisherman nets and becomes involved with a castaway who says she is a princess from ...
Clute, John
(1940- ) Canadian critic, editor and author, in the UK from 1969; married to Judith Clute from 1964, partner of Elizabeth Hand since 1996. He began to publish work of genre interest with an sf-tinged poem "Carcajou Lament" in Triquarterly for Winter 1960 [ie Autumn 1959]; he began consistently publishing sf reviews in his "New Fiction" column for the Toronto Star ...