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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 ...
"X" [2]
Pseudonym of the unidentified UK author (? -? ) of The Setting Sun: An Ante-Dated Picture for a People (1904), a spoof Future War tale in which Britain defeats East Midasland; the Satire is no more taxing than that found in P G Wodehouse's better-known The Swoop (1909). [JC]
Bennett, Margot
(1912-1980) Scottish screenwriter, journalist and author, her first novel being a crime novel, Time to Change Hats (1945); most of her subsequent work, in a subtle and atmospheric style, was in the same genre. A fantasy story, "An Old-Fashioned Poker for My Uncle's Head" (August 1946 Lilliput), was reprinted in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in May 1954. Her first sf novel, The Long Way Back (1954), has become well ...
West, Alroy
Pseudonym of UK author Michael Roy Hastings (1907-1980), who was born Herbert Roy Higgins, but normally wrote adventure thrillers as by Michael Hastings, taking that name by deed poll in 1939; he also published some thrillers as by Gabriel Hythe. As West, he wrote at least one tale of some sf interest (and perhaps several); one of these, The Black Matador (1937), describes the effects of the Invention of a device capable of blocking all electronic ...
McInnes, Graham
(1912-1970) UK-born film producer (for the National Film Board of Canada), diplomat (in the Canadian Department of External Affairs) and author, in Australia from 1920, in Canada after 1934; son of the novelist Angela Thirkell (1890-1961) – another son of hers was Colin MacInnes (1914-1976), who spelt his surname thus. Most of McInnes's work is not sf, but Lost Island: An Adventure (1954) is a Lost-Race story, in which a Canadian aviator ...
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 ...