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Saturday 9 December 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 ...
Beast from Haunted Cave
Film (1959; vt The Beast from Haunted Cave; vt Creature from the Cave). Northern productions/Allied Artists. Produced by Gene Corman. Directed by Monte Hellman. Written by Charles B Griffith from his original story. Cast includes Linné Ahlstrand, Wally Campo, Sheila Carroll (credited as Sheila Noonan), Michael Forest, Kay Jennings, Richard Sinatra and Frank Wolff. 75 minutes, cut to 71 minutes for home video release. Black and white. / Gangster Alexander Ward ...
Rhoades, Walter
(1860-1927) UK author of The Hidden City: A Story of Central America (1907), a Lost World tale for boys set in Central America. Rhoades wrote a number of other novels aimed at boys. [JC]
.hack
Videogame series (from 2002). CyberConnect2 (CC2). Designed by Kazunori Ito, Kōichi Mashimo, Yoshiyuki Sadamoto. / .hack is a transmedia franchise including Videogames, Anime, novels and Comics, all of which are perhaps best viewed as parts of a single work. Its story revolves around a fictional ...
Scorcher
Film (2002). Cinetel Films, Inc. Directed by James Seale. Written by Steve Latshaw, Rebecca Morrison, Graham Winter. Cast includes Mark Dacascos, Rutger Hauer, Rayne Marcus and John Rhys-Davies. 91 minutes. Colour. / Geothermal activity suddenly threatens the planet with imminent incineration unless the Pacific tectonic plate's movement is halted by nuclear blasts detonated directly below the centre of Los Angeles. A team of soldiers goes into the city to set up the bombs, and though ...
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 ...