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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 ...
Spencer, Leonard G
Ziff-Davis House Name used at least twice by Robert Silverberg and Randall Garrett in collaboration, for the stories "The Beast With 7 Tails" (August 1956 Amazing) and "The Girl from Bodies, Inc." (October 1956 Fantastic). A third Spencer story, "The Man with the X-Ray Eyes" (February 1957 ...
Coury, Phil
(? - ) US corporate executive who trained at US Air Force technical schools and served in the USAF during World War Two. His sf novel Anno Domini 2000 (1959) features a future socialist America (see Politics); the plot involves a Senate campaign in which the hero plumps for an alternative course. [JC/DRL]
Rabin, Staton
(1958- ) US author of two Young Adult novels, Black Powder (2005) and The Curse of the Romanovs (2007), both involving Time Travel: the young protagonist of the first, using his teacher's Invention of a Time Machine, travels back to the thirteenth century in order to deter Roger Bacon ...
Dudintsev, Vladimir
(1918-1998) Russian author whose novel Not by Bread Alone (1956 Novy Mir; trans 1957) seemed at first to proclaim the Soviet thaw, but he was publicly reprimanded for it soon after its publication. A New Year's Tale (US trans Gabriella Azrael from "Novogodniaia skazka" [1956 Novy Mir] 1960 chap; simultaneous UK trans Max Hayward from same source; 1960 chap) is a kind of sf morality tale in which the protagonist, in the process of composing ...
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 ...