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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 ...
Front Mission
Videogame series (from 1999). Initially Square (SQ), later Square Enix (SE). Designed by Toshiro Tsuchida. / Front Mission is a series of Console Role Playing Games (see Computer Role Playing Games) which emphasize turn-based tactical combat and strong, often multilinear, plots (see Interactive Narrative). To date, only three members of the main series have been ...
Richards, Harvey D
Pseudonym of US military pilot and author Noël E Sainsbury Jr (1884-1956) for his Sorak sequence, beginning with Sorak of the Malay Jungle [for all subtitles see Checklist] (1934), and clearly intended to exploit the popularity of Tarzan. Sorak himself, and his animal companion (in this case, a tiger), are inherently as borderline-sf in their conception as Tarzan himself; but they venture (as does Tarzan) into sf territory, discovering a ...
Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure
Film (1989). Interscope Communications/Soisson-Murphey/De Laurentiis. Director Stephen Herek. Written by Chris Matheson, Ed Solomon. Cast includes Robert V Barron, Terry Camilleri, George Carlin, Al Leong, Keanu Reeves, Jane Wiedlin and Alex Winter. 89 minutes. Colour. / Because the tranquillity of future life depends on the cultural changes brought about by a late-twentieth-century rock band called Wyld Stallyns, an emissary from the future named Rufus (Carlin) undergoes ...
Man With Nine Lives, The
Film (1940). Columbia Pictures Corporation. Produced by Irving Briskin and Wallace MacDonald (uncredited). Directed by Nick Grinde (as Nick Grindé). Written by Karl Brown from an original story by Harold Shumate. Cast includes Boris Karloff, Roger Pryor and Jo Ann Sayers. 74 minutes. Black and white. / Dr Tim Mason (Pryor) is working on Cryogenic treatment of chronic medical problems, continuing the work of the ...
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 ...