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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 ...
Gipe, George
(1933-1986) US tv and film scriptwriter and author known within the sf field for several competent film Ties: Resurrection (1980), Gremlins (1984) (see Joe Dante), Explorers (1985) (see Explorers) and Back to the Future (1985) (see Back to the Future). [JC]
Pike, Christopher
Pseudonym – apparently based on a Star Trek character – of US author Kevin McFadden (1954- ), whose career has been mostly devoted to novels for children and the Young Adult market; some of these, like The Tachyon Web (1986) and, are sf adventures combining orthodox plots (in this case a group of teenagers "borrows" a Spaceship in which they penetrate the eponymous barrier ...
Beekman, Doug
Working name of American artist Douglas L Beekman (1952- ). After briefly studying at the Columbus College of Art and Design in his home state of Ohio, he grew dissatisfied with the school and moved to New York City to complete his training at the School of Visual Arts and the Art Students League. He then began painting book covers, mostly for minor publishers; his first noteworthy effort, perhaps, was his cover for a 1977 edition of Philip K ...
Lapin, Lawrence
(? - ) US academic and author of a medical sf thriller, Super Virus: Immortal Sins (2009), whose doctor protagonist, attempting to save his wife from breast cancer, invents a virus capable of stopping the disease while simultaneously conferring Immortality. But in the meantime he is suspected of murder. The sequence is projected to continue. [JC]
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 ...