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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 ...
Wilson, Jesse
(? -? ) UK author of an anti-feminist Satire, When the Women Reign: 1930 (1909), whose protagonist awakes (see Sleeper Awakes) in Near Future 1930, where the disastrous consequences of allowing female suffrage (see Feminism; Women in SF) are all too evident; eventually, the men revolt, and the ...
Bilderdijk, Willem
(1756-1831) Dutch poet, dramatist, and author of nonfiction on many subjects. His one work of fiction was the novella Kort verhaal van eene aanmerklijke luchtreis, en nieuwe planeetontdekking (1813 chap anon; trans Paul Vincent as A Short Account of a Remarkable Aerial Voyage and Discovery of a New Planet 1987 chap), in which a Balloonist is cast away on a small satellite orbiting within the Earth's atmosphere. Its flora and fauna are ...
Marvell, Andrew
Pseudonym of Welsh editor and author Howell Davies (1896-1985), who served in the trenches from the beginning of World War One, rising to the rank of Captain, an experience which affected him profoundly; he worked between the Wars as a theatre critic for the Manchester Evening News and as literary editor of the Star and News Chronicle, also serving as editor of the South American Handbook from its founding in 1923 until he retired ...
Starflight
Videogame (1986). Binary Systems (BS). Platforms: DOS (1986); Amiga, C64 (1989); AtariST, Mac (1990); MegaDrive (1991). / Starflight is perhaps best described as a two-dimensional Computer Role Playing Game set on a starship. The game begins on a planet known as Arth, which is inhabited by a mix of species, including humans. A spacecraft of unknown origin has recently been ...
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 ...