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
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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 ...
Perfect Woman, The
Film (1949). Two Cities/Eagle-Lion. Directed by Bernard Knowles. Written by George Black, Knowles, based on the play The Perfect Woman (produced 1948; 1950) by Wallace Geoffrey and Basil Mitchell. Cast includes Pamela Devis, Irene Handl, Stanley Holloway, Miles Malleson, Nigel Patrick, Patricia Roc and Constance Smith. 89 minutes. Black and white. / An inventor creates a Robot in the image of his niece and hires a young man to take it out on ...
Fan Language
Sf enthusiasts, in common with other groups, have evolved their own terminology and usage. This language comprises words and phrases used in the writing of sf itself and also the more arcane and whimsical jargon of Fandom and Fanzines. / Most sf readers are familiar with the shorthand of their literature, and words like Spaceship, Robot, ...
Weston, Susan B
(1943- ) US author whose Children of Light (1985), set in a Ruined Earth America that had been direly but not terminally affected by Holocaust, treats the possibilities of human survival with warmth and some plausibility. [JC]
Lynde, Francis
(1856-1930) US author, prolific in several popular genres, including detective thrillers and Westerns, these two forms being brought together in Scientific Sprague (coll of linked stories 1912), featuring the exploits of the eponymous detective-cum-engineer, who defends a Western railroad (see Transportation) against thieves, accidents and Inventions in the hands of villains. Several of ...
Langford, David
(1953- ) UK author, critic, editor, publisher and sf fan, in the latter capacity recipient of 21 Hugo awards for fan writing – some of the best of his several hundred pieces are assembled as Let's Hear It for the Deaf Man (coll 1992 chap US; much exp vt The Silence of the Langford 1996; exp 2015 ebook) as Dave Langford, edited by Ben Yalow – plus five Best Fanzine Hugos ...