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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 ...
It Came from the Desert
Videogame (1989). Cinemaware. Designed by David Riordan. Platforms: Amiga (1989); DOS (1990); rev PCEngineCD (1992). / Much influenced by the "atomic ant" epic Them! (1954), It Came From The Desert is suggestive of such contemporary films as Tremors (1989) in its loving homage to the Monster Movies of the 1950s. The game ...
Serial Films
In the early days of Cinema there was a considerable vogue for serial films divided into chapters or episodes intended for separate screening in weekly instalments, a famous nonfantastic example being the 20-part General Film Company/Eclectic Film Company melodrama The Perils of Pauline (1914), directed by Louis J Gasnier and Donald MacKenzie with the much-menaced Pearl White in the title role. Later serials introduced the tradition of breaking off at ...
Captain Pipeclay
Pseudonym of the unidentified author (? -? ) of The Battle of Foxhill, the Prince of Wales in a Mess [for full title see Checklist] (1871 chap), a Satire which uses the Battle of Dorking scenario to comment on contemporary politics. [JC]
Vesser, Carolyn
(1934-2010) US author whose Young Adult sf novel, Hellwalker (1988), is a Planetary Romance set in an isolated world exploited by a ruthless Telepath from another planet; his younger brother foils his plans to create an empire. [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 ...