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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 ...
Elson, Robert
(? - ) UK author whose only work of sf interest is "Quack!": The Portrait of an Experimentalist (1924), in which a doctor discovers that a substance in vitamin B hugely increases muscular strength and resistance to disease (see Immortality; Superman). [JC]
Good Place, The
US tv series (2016-2020). Fremulon, 3 Arts Entertainment, Universal Television. Created by Michael Schur. Directors include Dean Holland, Beth McCarthy-Miller and Morgan Sackett. Writers include Megan Amram, Joe Mande, Michael Schur and Jen Statsky. Cast includes Kristen Bell, D'Arcy Carden, Ted Danson, William Jackson Harper, Manny Jacinto, Marc Evan Jackson, Jameela Jamil and Maya Rudolph. 52 episodes – each of 22 minutes save for the double-length series finale – plus six ...
Holmes, F Ratcliffe
Working name of Frederick William Ratcliffe-Holmes (circa 1878-1952) UK naturalist, film-producer and author whose The Secret People: Adventure in Africa (1928) is a Lost Race tale set in Africa, where an Ancient Egyptian civilization is discovered by the Young Adult protagonists. [JC]
Bennett, Harve
(1930-2015) US film/tv producer and screenwriter, Harve Bennett was an almost legendary figure in sf television production and writing, and fulfilled both those roles on The Invisible Man (1975-1976), The Bionic Woman (1976-1978), Gemini Man (1976) (see The Invisible Man), The ...
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 ...