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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 ...
Morgan, John Minter
(1782-1854) UK educationist and author; as an influential advocate for the creation of a socialist, communitarian Utopia in England, he was heavily influenced by Sir Thomas More's Utopia (1516). The Revolt of the Bees (1826) anonymous is written with didactic intent, and its bringing together of what would soon be seen as incompatible modes, have ensured its abiding obscurity. A group (or hive) of ...
Pagliassotti, Dru
(1966- ) US academic, publisher and author who is of sf interest for her Steampunk Clockwork sequence beginning with Clockwork Heart (2008), set in a world seemingly governed by a Computer-controlled Great Engine. The protagonist is a young woman in a guild of messengers who accomplish their missions with the aid of artificial wings (see Flying) made of ondinium, ...
Badger Books
The main imprint of John Spencer and Co, used by that firm on almost all their books from about the beginning of 1955 through 1967, when the imprint was terminated. John Spencer and Co. itself was founded in 1946, incorporated in 1956 and eventually dissolved in 1983; like several other UK firms (e.g., Curtis Warren), it specialized in the production of purpose-written paperback originals in various popular genres, though the early 1950s saw some emphasis on ...
Appel, Benjamin
(1907-1977) US author, long and variously active, known mainly for such work outside the sf field as Brain Guy (1934) and The Raw Edge (1958). In his sf novel, The Funhouse (1959; vt The Death Master 1974), satirical (see Satire) and Linguistic sideshows sometimes illuminate the story of two Utopias as the Chief of Police from the anti-technological ...
Langford, David
(1953- ) UK author, critic, editor, publisher and sf fan, in the latter capacity recipient of 21 Hugo awards for fan writing – some of the best of his several hundred pieces are assembled as Let's Hear It for the Deaf Man (coll 1992 chap US; much exp vt The Silence of the Langford 1996; exp 2015 ebook) as Dave Langford, edited by Ben Yalow – plus five Best Fanzine Hugos ...