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
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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 ...
Space Stations
Stories of space stations or artificial satellites appear early in sf, the first example being Edward Everett Hale's extraordinary "The Brick Moon" (October-December 1869 Atlantic Monthly) and its sequel "Life in the Brick Moon" (February 1870 Atlantic), in which the satellite of the title consists of many brick spheres connected by brick arches, and is launched, with people on board, by gigantic flywheels. Kurd ...
Science Fiction Classics
One of the many reprint Digest-size magazines published by Sol Cohen's Ultimate Publishing, 30 issues, edited by Herb Lehrman as Ralph Adris #1-#5, then edited by Cohen. It began February 1967, published #1-#6 in 1967-1968 as Science Fiction Classics and #7-#8 in 1969 as Science Fiction (Adventure) Classics. It resumed publication in Winter 1970 under the latter title with #12 and published 22 more issues before merging ...
Biology
The growth of knowledge in the biological sciences has lagged behind that in the physical sciences; Newton's synthesis of Physics and Astronomy anticipated the linking of biology and chemistry by 200 years. The age of mechanical inventions began in the early nineteenth century, that of biological inventions is only just beginning, in the wake of the elucidation (during the 1960s) of the "genetic code" which controls naturally occurring ...
Teramond, Guy
Working name of French teacher, poet, playwright and author Edmond-François Gautier Teramond (1869-1957), who also wrote as Guy de Téramond, Jehan Ferré, Captain George and Franz La Rhoellerie; active from around 1890 as a poet, and from about half a decade later as an author of thrillers, romances, and some sf. The protagonist of L'Homme qui voit à travers les murailles (1913; trans Mary J Safford as The Mystery of Lucien Delorme 1915) as ...
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 ...