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.
Site updated on 25 July 2024
Sponsor of the day: Handheld Press
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 ...
Konkevič, Alexsandr
(1842-?1917) Russian author whose Future War tale, Krejsev "Russkaja Nadežda" (1886 Russkoje Sudohodstvo; 1887; trans Charles James Cooke as The "Russia's Hope"; Or, Britannia No Longer Rules the Waves: Showing How the Muscovite Bear Got at the British Whale 1888) as A K, shows the Russian navy rapidly wiping out the British navy, aided by an advanced Weapon in the form of a fast and accurate ...
Roguelike
Roguelikes or Rogue-likes are a type of Computer Role Playing Game or CRPG with a number of common gameplay features. The player must move their character, or party of characters through a dungeon or map with a series of levels, fighting Monsters of increasing difficulty. Most typically, the player is subject to "permadeath"; if a character or member of a party dies, then they are lost permanently. If all characters ...
Janusz A Zajdel Award
The Polish Fandom Award was founded in 1984 at Polcon, the Polish national Convention, and named Sfinks, to be awarded for literary achievements in the field of science fiction (later also Fantasy) in the preceding calendar year, so the first award for the year 1984 was granted at the convention in 1985. However, only a month before Polcon '85 Janusz A ...
Harris, Mark Jonathan
(1941- ) US documentary film maker, academic and author, in the latter capacity of interest for a Young Adult tale, Solay (1993), in which a young girl's life is transformed after she meets an Alien, who is also a girl. [JC]
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 ...