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Saturday 27 July 2024
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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Arthur C Clarke Award
This award has been given since 1987 for the best sf novel whose UK first edition was published during the previous calendar year, and consists of an inscribed bookend and a sum of money from a grant initially donated by Arthur C Clarke. In 2001 the prize money – until then a constant £1000 – was increased to £2001 as a gesture to 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968); it has since risen by ...
Blackman, Malorie
(1962- ) UK screenwriter and author, prolific in several genres and for various age levels, though she is almost certainly best-known for the Young Adult Noughts & Crosses sequence beginning with Noughts & Crosses (2001) [for vts see Checklist below], which is set in an Alternate World called Zafrica where whites are oppressed and Blacks are in charge (see ...
Freelancer
Videogame (2003). Digital Anvil (DA). Designed by Chris Roberts. Platforms: Win. / Freelancer is a three-dimensional Space Sim which combines the open exploratory gameplay of Elite (1984) with an integrated linear plot (see Interactive Narrative). The player character is Edison Trent, a down on his luck "freelancer" who needs a new ship. Soon ...
Day After Tomorrow, The [tv]
Tv programme (1975; vt Into Infinity). Gerry Anderson Productions for BBC 1 (UK), NBC-TV (US). Produced by Gerry Anderson. Directed by Charles Crichton. Written by Johnny Byrne. Cast includes Brian Blessed, Joanna Dunham, Martin Lev, Katherine Levy and Nick Tate. Narrator: Ed Bishop. 52 minutes; expanded to 80 minutes. Colour. / In the Near Future, humanity is facing possible extinction due to environmental ...
Apes as Human
The heading for this entry should be seen as a rough short-hand designation for a subject whose nature is diffuse and has changed constantly over the centuries; in the second edition of this encyclopedia (1993) our remit for what was then entitled Apes and Cavemen (in the Human World) may have been unwieldy, as we used the term "cavemen" to designate subject matter that might have fitted better into other entries: mainly proto-human races, including Neanderthals, though without taking a ...
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 ...