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 ...
Prehistoric Women
1. US film (1950). Alliance Productions, Inc. Produced by Albert J Cohen. Directed by Gregg C Tallas. Written by Tallas, and Sam X Abarbanel. Cast includes Judy Landon, Laurette Luez, Mara Lynn, Allan Nixon and Joan Shawlee. Narrator: David Vaile. 74 minutes. Colour. / Amazon princess Tigri (Luez) and her Stone Age friends have driven all males away some time prior to the start of this Prehistoric SF film; but, being practical, they capture ...
Barnwell, William
(1943- ) US author whose most interesting foray into the sf/fantasy genre was his well-written Blessing Trilogy, consisting of The Blessing Papers (1980), Imram (1981) and The Sigma Curve (1981). Set in Eire (here called Imram), this complex quest through a Ruined-Earth world, where some sort of grand design by mysterious powers is operating, at first appears lively but conventional ...
Fourth Kind, The
Film (2009). Universal Pictures and Gold Circle Films presents a Chambara Pictures and Dead Crow Pictures production in association with Focus Films, Fourth Kind Productions and Saga Film. Directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi. Written by Osunsanmi with Terry Robbins. Cast includes Enzo Cilenti, Raphaël Coleman, Corey Johnson, Milla Jovovich, Hakeem Kae-Kazim, Elias Koteas, Mia Mckenna-Bruce, Charlotte Milchard and Will Patton. 98 minutes. Colour. / A psychologist (see ...
Leviathan
Film (1989). Gordon Co./Filmauro. Directed by George P Cosmatos. Written by David Peoples and Jeb Stuart, based on a story by Peoples. Cast includes Richard Crenna, Amanda Pays and Peter Weller. 98 minutes. Colour. / One of several undersea-Alien movies of the period, Leviathan most resembles (and improves on) Deepstar Six (1988), especially in the near-identical finale. In this efficiently scary but routine ...
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 ...