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
Sponsor of the day: The League of Fan Funds
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 ...
Arango, Ángel
Working name of Ángel José Arango Rodríguez (1926-2013), who was the last surviving and active author from what is considered the generation of founding fathers of modern sf in Cuba: Arango, Oscar Hurtado (1919-1977) and Miguel Collazo (1936-1999). These three authors published the three seminal works of the 1960s: Oscar Hurtado with his long poem La ciudad muerta de Korad ["The Dead City of Korad"] (1964), Miguel Collazo with ...
Snyder, Cecil III
(1948- ) US author of The Hawks of Arcturus (1974), in which a lone Earthman defies the eponymous Aliens in their attempt to find the secrets of an ancient Galaxy-ruling race (see Forerunners). He should not be confused with his father, Cecil K Snyder Jr (1927- ), also an author. [JC]
Bioshock
Videogame (2007). 2K Boston / 2K Australia. Designed by Ken Levine. Platforms: XB360, Win (2007); PS3 (2008); Mac (2009). / BioShock is a First Person Shooter, much influenced by System Shock 2 (1999) (see System Shock). The game begins with the player character, Jack, in the middle of the Atlantic in 1960, having survived an airplane ...
Pearce, Brenda
(1935- ) UK author who began publishing sf with "Hot Spot" in Analog for 1974. Kidnapped into Space (1975) and Worlds for the Grabbing (1977) are both routine but enjoyable Space Opera tales in which her interest in technical and technological matters sometimes shows through to advantage. [JC]
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 ...