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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 ...
Mimic
Film (1997). Dimension Films. Directed by Guillermo Del Toro. Written by del Toro and Matthew Robbins, based on "Mimic" (December 1942 Astonishing Stories) by Donald A Wollheim writing as by Martin Pearson. Cast includes F Murray Abraham, Josh Brolin, Charles Dutton, Giancarlo Giannini, Jeremy Northam and Mira Sorvino. Theatrical cut 105 minutes; Director's Cut 112 ...
Mercier, Lewis Page
(1820-1875) UK minister, schoolmaster and translator, signing as Mercier Lewis and Louis Mercier; it has been surmised that a combination of career and financial difficulties forced him into the translation trade, and these pressures plus ill health may explain the occasional shoddiness of (and frequent cuts to) his translations of Jules Verne novels; the frequency with which they were reprinted remains anomalous. The degree to which his translations were ...
Stannard, Russell
(1931- ) UK physicist and author, much of whose nonfiction attempts to reconcile modern science and Religion. He is of sf interest for the Uncle Albert series of didactic tales for relatively young readers beginning with The Time and Space of Uncle Albert (1989). The structure of the sequence – children present Uncle Albert with questions, which he answers through guided tours of the physical universe – ...
Salinger, Pierre
(1925-2004) US journalist – best known for his stint as John F Kennedy's press secretary from 1961 – briefly US Senator for California in 1964, and author. His very Near Future tale, On Instructions of My Government (1971), describes the consequences of the discovery of a Chinese Communist missile base in South America. [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 ...