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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 ...
Samachson, Joseph
(1906-1980) US research chemist who became a freelance author between 1938 and 1953 before returning to biochemistry, eventually retiring in 1973 after five years as Associate Clinical Professor of biochemistry at Loyola University, Chicago. His first story, "Bad Medicine" for Thrilling Wonder Stories in February 1941, was published as by William Morrison, under which name he wrote almost all his fiction of interest. Under the House Name ...
McNaughton, Charles Jr
(? - ) US author of a mildly exorbitant sf tale about exceptional Sex set in the very Near Future, Mindblower (1969). [JC]
Swan, Erin
(? - ) US teacher and author whose first novel, Walk the Vanished Earth (2022), complexly intertwines a Western narrative set in nineteenth century Kansas, episodes set in contemporary or Near Future America, and a hegira across late twenty-first century Mars by a young woman accompanied by non-human guides/mentors. Throughout the cross-stitching of the tale a minatory concern for the ...
Spaced Invaders
Film (1989). Smart Egg Pictures. Directed by Patrick Read Johnson. Written by Johnson, Scott Alexander. Cast includes J J Anderson, Fred Applegate, Douglas Barr, Gregg Berger, Royal Dano and Ariana Richards. 100 minutes. Colour. / This spoof, obviously made for younger viewers, starts promisingly with the premise that the diminutive crew of a Martian Spaceship, in the middle of a battle, pick up the radio signal of Orson ...
Clute, John
(1940- ) Canadian critic, editor and author, in the UK from 1969; married to Judith Clute from 1964, partner of Elizabeth Hand since 1996. He began to publish work of genre interest with an sf-tinged poem "Carcajou Lament" in Triquarterly for Winter 1960 [ie Autumn 1959]; he began consistently publishing sf reviews in his "New Fiction" column for the Toronto Star (1966-1967), and later in ...