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 ...
Technothriller
A common term, used in this encyclopedia to designate a tale which, though it often makes use of sf devices, in fact occupies an undisplaced, essentially mundane narrative world, one that – during the years when technothrillers were most popular, from the 1950s to the 1970s – was commonly seen through a Cold War lens. Though usually taking place in the present day, technothrillers may be set in the Near Future and invoke ...
Watson, Robert
(1882-1948) Scottish-born screenwriter, editor and author, in Canada from 1908, moving to California in 1933 to continue his cinema work. Of his several romantic adventures, High Hazard: A Romance of the Far Arctic (1929) is a Lost World tale featuring a clement enclave in the far north, where creatures out of Prehistoric SF roam, along with giants. [JC]
Super Sentai
Super Sentai (original title Sūpā Sentai Shirīzu), is a long-running (1975-current) Superhero franchise in the Tokusatsu genre, made by the Toei Company: it also includes the Power Rangers (1993-current) series. It is as of January 2021 the world's 32nd highest-grossing media franchise. The first two series, Himitsu Sentai Gorenger ...
Ranzetta, Luan
Pseudonym of Valerie Ranzetta (? -? ), author of several routine sf adventures focusing on Alien Invasions, great Disasters and crises in Spaceships; they include The Uncharted Planet (1961) as V Ranzetta, The Maru Invasion: Turmoil and Destruction on Earth (1962), The World in Reverse (1962), ...
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 ...