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Monday 24 January 2022
Welcome to the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Fourth Edition. Some sample entries appear below. Click here for the Introduction; here for the masthead; here for 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 24 January 2022
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Terrornauts, The
Film (1967). Amicus Productions. Directed by Montgomery Tully. Written by John Brunner, based on the novel The Wailing Asteroid (1960) by Murray Leinster. Cast includes Charles Hawtrey, Patricia Hayes, Zena Marshall, Stanley Meadows and Simon Oates. 75 minutes. Colour. / The head of a project to use a radio telescope to listen for signs of intelligent life, Dr Joe Burke (Oates), is rewarded for his efforts, just before his funding will be cancelled, when he picks up a strange radio signal. ...
Mind Snatchers, The
Film (1972; vt The Happiness Cage; vt The Demon Within). International Film Ventures, Ltd. Directed by Bernard Girard. Written by Dennis Reardon and Ron Whyte, based on Reardon's play The Happiness Cage. Cast includes Joss Ackland, Ronny Cox, Ralph Meeker, Birthe Neumann and Christopher Walken. 94 minutes. Colour. / US Army private James H Reese (Walken) has an altercation with guests at a party given by his girlfriend Lisa (Neumann) which ultimately results in his arrest for assault. Reese ...
Crane, Nathalia
(1913-1998) US poet, teacher and author, precociously active as a poet from childhood, beginning with the publication of her first collection, The Janitor's Boy and Other Poems (coll 1924 chap), which was much influenced by Emily Dickinson (1830-1886); Time magazine referred to her at this time as "The Baby Browning of Brooklyn". After publishing some further work she enjoyed a long career as an academic and political activist. Samuel R Delany mentions her in Atlantis: Model 1924 (1995). / ...
Out There
US tv series (1951-1952). CBS TV. Created by Donald Davis. Produced by John Hargott. Directors included Andrew McCullough, Byron Paul. Writers included Graham Doar, Howard Rodman, Reginald Rose. 12 30-minute episodes. Black and white. / This short-lived anthology programme was one of the first adult-oriented science fiction series on US Television, appearing in the same year as the much better known Tales of Tomorrow (1951-1953). The programme featured a number of stories from well-known sf ...
Harvey, Colin
(1960-2011) UK author who began publishing work of genre interest in professional magazines with "On the Rock" for Albedo One #35 in 2008 (no month given), and published several further stories over the next three years. His first, rather tentative novels – Vengeance (2001), Lightning Days (2006), The Silk Palace (2007) and Blind Faith (2008) – range from Space Opera to Dystopian depictions of the Near Future. Winter Song (2009), typical of his later and more assured work, subjects ...
Langford, David
(1953- ) UK author, critic, editor, publisher and sf fan, in the latter capacity recipient of 21 Hugo awards for fan writing – some of the best of his several hundred pieces are assembled as Let's Hear It for the Deaf Man (coll 1992 chap US; much exp vt The Silence of the Langford 1996; exp 2015 ebook) as Dave Langford, edited by Ben Yalow – plus five Best Fanzine Hugos and one Semiprozine Hugo for his self-produced news magazine, Ansible (which see). His one ...