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Tuesday 28 November 2023
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.
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Compton, D G
(1930-2023) UK author, born of parents who were both in the theatre; he increasingly lived in the USA after 1981. As Guy Compton, he published some unremarkable detective novels, beginning with Too Many Murderers (1962), and as by Frances Lynch produced some nonfantastic Gothics throughout his career; but soon turned to sf with tales almost always set in the Near Future, and anatomizing moral dilemmas within that arena: the future is very clearly ...
Armstrong, Jennifer
(1961- ) US author, almost exclusively fiction and nonfiction for children and the Young Adult audience, almost none of this output (approximately 50 titles) being of sf interest. But the remarkable Young Adult Fire-Us sequence comprising Fire-Us, Book 1: The Kindling (2002), Fire-Us, Book 2: The Keepers of the Flame (2002) and Fire-Us, Book 3: The Kiln (2003), ...
Aarons, Edward S
(1916-1975) US author of crime thrillers, before World War Two as by Edwards Ronns, those under his own name beginning with Nightmare (1948). He wrote sf very occasionally, "The Communicators" (June 1958 F&SF) being one of his few sf stories. The first of the forty-volume Sam Durell sequence of thrillers, Assignment to Disaster (1955), has some sf elements, as do Assignment – Moon Girl (1967) and ...
Simpsons Movie, The
US animated movie (2007). Gracie Films, 20th Century Fox Animation. Based on the tv series The Simpsons (1989-current), created by Matt Groening. Directed by David Silverman. Written by James L Brooks, Matt Groening, Al Jean, Ian Maxtone-Graham, George Meyer, David Mirkin, Mike Reiss, Mike Scully, Matt Selman, John Swartzwelder and Jon Vitti. Voice cast includes Hank Azaria, Albert Brooks, Nancy Cartwright, Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, ...
Return of Sherlock Holmes, The
Made-for-tv film (1987). CBS Entertainment Productions for CBS-TV. Produced by Nick Gillott. Directed by Kevin Connor. Written by Bob Shayne. Based on characters created by Arthur Conan Doyle. Cast includes Margaret Colin, Barry Morse and Michael Pennington. 100 minutes. Colour. / Modern-day private detective Jane Watson (Colin) must sell the UK estate that belonged to her ancestor Dr Watson. On her final visit, a lawyer gives her an old letter ...
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 ...