SF Encyclopedia Home Page
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 ...
Messingham, Simon
(? - ) UK stage performer and author, in the latter capacity solely of Ties for the Doctor Who universe, beginning with Strange England (1994), his work tending to explore the nature of Doctor Who in his various incarnations. [JC]
Morris, Gouverneur
(1876-1953) US banker, screenwriter and author, great-grandson of the American Founding Father Gouverneur Morris (1752-1816), extremely prolific as an author of short fiction. Some of his work is sf and fantasy, beginning with the Prehistoric SF tale, The Pagan's Progress (1904), whose the hero begins to acquire spiritual values through a moment of Transcendence when he understands that life is eternal, though ...
Foon, Dennis
(1951- ) US-born playwright and author, in Canada from 1973, where he became well-known for his plays for older children; of sf interest is the Longlight Legacy sequence, comprising The Dirt Eaters (2003), Freewalker (2004) and The Keeper's Shadow (2007), a Young Adult family drama set in a Ruined Earth-like landscape (though this venue may be a ...
Peek, Ben
(1976- ) Australian author whose first work, The Enigma Variant (1999 chap) with Chris Mowbray is horror. He began publishing work of wider genre interest with "Cigarettes and Roses" in Passing Strange: A New Anthology of Australian Speculative Fiction (anth 2002) edited by Bill Congreve; further short stories have been assembled as Dead Americans and Other Stories (coll 2014). Of specific sf ...
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 ...