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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 ...
Fawcett, Edgar
(1847-1904) US author, known primarily for his work outside the sf field. Most of his 40 or so novels belong to the realist school associated with his contemporary William Dean Howells, but (like Howells) Fawcett also wrote fantastic works. He provided a manifesto for a species of fiction which he called "realistic romance", which is very similar to some Definitions of SF: "Stories where the astonishing and peculiar ...
Godsfire
Board and counter Wargame (1976). Metagaming Concepts. Designed by Lynn Willis. / Godsfire is a simulation of strategic warfare between the governments of fifteen solar systems in an isolated galactic cluster. The background has a strong Hard SF flavour; notably, most of the game's Starships are restricted to Sublight speeds, despite their use of such exotic ...
Deltron 3030
US hip-hop supergroup comprising producer Dan the Automator (Daniel Nakamura, 9 September 1967- ), rapper Del the Funky Homosapien (Teren Delvon Jones, 12 August 1972- ) and turntablist Kid Koala (Eric San, 1974- ). They released their eponymous debut album in 2000. After a considerable hiatus, their second album, Event 2, appeared in 2013. / Deltron 3030 (2000) is an ...
Nisbet, Hume
(1849-1923) Scottish actor, painter, teacher and author, intermittently in Australia from 1865 – where much of his non-fantastic fiction is set – though he spent most of his life in England. He wrote at least forty-five novels, some of which are fantasy or sf, beginning with Ashes: A Tale of Two Spheres (1890; vt Wasted Fires 1902), a rather metaphysical assault on the world of publishing, set in an imaginary city morally contaminated by an art editor who ...
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 ...