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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 ...
Grossman, Dave
(1956- ) German-born US author, a former lieutenant colonel in the US Army and student of the psychology of killing [see Checklist below]. He began to publish sf with The War with Earth (2003) and Kren of the Mitchegai (2004), both in collaboration with Leo Frankowski (whom see for description); these are the second and third books in the A Boy and His Tank/New Kashubia ...
Alden, W L
(1837-1908) US lawyer, diplomat, journalist (mostly for the New York Times) and author, in the UK from 1893 (but he died back in the US), a founding member of the Theosophical Society in 1875 (see Theosophy), though he was soon disillusioned and resigned; he began publishing pieces – mostly nonfiction, though there is no comprehensive bibliography – in American magazines in the 1870s, where his advocacy of the canoe for sporting purposes was ...
Puella Magi Madoka Magica
["Mahō Shōjo Madoka Magika", literally "Magical Girl Madoka Magika"]. Japanese tv series. (2011). Shaft, Aniplex, Hakuhodo, DY Media Partners, Hōbunsha, MBS, Movic, Nitroplus. Cast includes Yuki Aoi, Emiri Katō, Eri Kitamura, Kaoru Mizuhashi and Chiwa Saito. Directed by Akiyuki Shinbo. Written by Gen Urobuchi. Twelve 25-minute episodes. Colour. / Japanese schoolgirl Madoka (Aoi) is offered a Faustian pact by the ...
MacArthur, David
(? - ) UK author of an sf novel for older children, The Thunderbolt Men: A Tale for Children (1947), a surprisingly archaic narrative in which two young protagonists discover a Mad Scientist on a remote Island who plans to destroy the world with his Inventions; but pluck wins the day. [JC]
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 ...