SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Wednesday 4 October 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.
Site updated on 3 October 2023
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Dreamcatcher
Film (2003). Castle Rock Entertainment presents a Kasdan Pictures production in association with Village Roadshow Pictures and NPV Entertainment. Directed by Lawrence Kasdan. Written by William Goldman and Lawrence Kasdan, based on the novel Dreamcatcher (2001) by Stephen King. Cast includes Giacomo Baessato, Rosemary Dunsmore, Morgan Freeman, Mikey Holekamp, Thomas Jane, Eric Keenleyside, Jason Lee, Damian Lewis, Timothy Olyphant, Joel ...
Unknown Terror, The
Film (1957; vt Beyond Terror). Emirau Productions/Regal Films/20th Century Fox Film Corporation. Produced by Robert Stabler. Directed by Charles Marquis Warren. Written by Kenneth Higgins. Cast includes Charles Gray, John Howard, Sir Lancelot, Gerald Milton, Mala Powers, Paul Richards and May Wynn. 76 minutes. Black and white. / Explorer Jim Wheatley (Gray) disappeared six months before the film begins, while exploring a mysterious cave in southern Mexico. His sister Gina ...
Peirce, Hayford
(1942-2020) US author, in Tahiti for the most active decades of his career, who also wrote crime thrillers; he began publishing sf with "Unlimited Warfare" in Analog for November 1974 and established a name for lightly written tales whose backgrounds were unusually well conceived. "Mail Supremacy" (March 1975 Analog) begins a series of tales – much later assembled as Chap Foey Rider: Capitalist to the Stars (coll 2001) ...
Empire of the Ants
Film (1977; vt H G Wells' Empire of the Ants). MGM Studios, Cinema 77, American International Pictures (AIP). Directed by Bert I Gordon. Screenplay by Gordon and Jack Turley, very loosely based on "The Empire of the Ants" (December 1905 Strand Magazine) by H G Wells. Cast includes Joan Collins, Robert Lansing. 82 minutes. ...
Illustrated Man, The
Film (1968). SKM Productions/Warner-Seven Arts. Directed by Jack Smight. Written by Howard B Kreitsek, based on The Illustrated Man (coll 1951) by Ray Bradbury. Cast includes Claire Bloom, Robert Drivas, Don Dubbins, Jason Evers and Rod Steiger. 103 minutes. Colour. / Ray Bradbury's idea of a man (here Steiger) whose various tattoos each represent a different tale did not completely work as an afterthought framework to link the stories ...
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 ...