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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 ...
Grudova, Camilla
(? - ) Canadian author, in Scotland for some years, who began to publish work of genre interest with "Agata's Machine" in The White Review for June 2015. Much of her early work, whose abrupt surreal destabilizations of normative reality have evoked comparisons with the short stories of both Margaret Atwood and Angela Carter, was assembled as The Doll's Alphabet (coll ...
Allan, Mabel Esther
(1915-1998) UK author, mostly of tales for children and romances, active from the early 1930s, who also wrote as by Jean Estorel, Priscilla Hagen, Kathleen M Pearcey and Anne Pilgrim; her work for children shows the influence of the author and educational philosopher A S Neill. She is of sf interest for Time to Go Back (1972), whose protagonist uses a form of Time Travel to experience her family's ordeal in ...
Richardson, Frank
(1870-1917) UK barrister and author, mostly of light fiction; he was the coiner of the term "face-fungus" to describe whiskers. The Bayswater Miracle (1903) mildly examines Gender issues through an Identity Exchange between a man and a woman; though it lacks any sf rationale, it is unusual in that the exchange is irreversible, with the reluctant male narrator, now physically female, marrying his sweetheart, who is ...
Jen, Gish
Working name of US author Lillian Jen (1955- ), "Gish" being a reference to the actor Lillian Gish (1893-1993); almost all of her work, much of it related to her complex Chinese-American background, is nonfantastic, much of it being nonfiction. She is of sf interest for The Resisters (2020), set in a Near Future America where Automation has created a two-class society: the Netted, who have jobs; ...
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 ...