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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 ...
Bennett, Harve
(1930-2015) US film/tv producer and screenwriter, Harve Bennett was an almost legendary figure in sf television production and writing, and fulfilled both those roles on The Invisible Man (1975-1976), The Bionic Woman (1976-1978), Gemini Man (1976) (see The Invisible Man), The ...
Collier, John
(1901-1980) UK author, poet and short-story author who spent much of his career, after about 1935, in the USA writing filmscripts. He was known mainly for his sophisticated though sometimes rather precious short stories, generally featuring the kind of acerbic snap ending often found in the disillusioned, wary kind of Slick Fantasy [see The Encyclopedia of Fantasy under links below] introduced by Saki, who ...
Hamilton, Donald
(1916-2006) Swedish-American author of many spy thrillers and several Westerns. Assignment: Murder (1956; vt Assassins Have Starry Eyes 1965) is of marginal sf interest in that its threatened protagonist is a nuclear research Scientist whose Project comes under attack. Hamilton is best known for the Matt Helm series of 27 spy thrillers (1960-1993, plus one still unpublished) beginning with ...
Rexner, Romulus
Pseudonym of US author born Andrezej Mariusz Toporski (1920-2009); he legally changed his name to Marion Matarisvan in 1956. In his sf novel, Planetary Legion: A Story of War and Peace, 1940-1980 (1960; rev vt Planetary Legion for Peace: Story of their War and our Peace, 1940-2000 1987), progressive forces successfully manipulate the Near Future world into a state of Utopia; it is heartfelt. There have been ...
Nicholls, Peter
(1939-2018) Australian editor and author, primarily a critic and historian of sf through his creation and editing of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction [see below]; resident in the UK 1970-1988, in Australia from 1988; worked as an academic in English literature (1962-1968, 1971-1977), scripted television documentaries, was a Harkness Fellow in Film-making (1968-1970) in the USA, worked as a publisher's editor (1982-1983), often broadcast film and book reviews on BBC Radio from 1974 and ...