SF Encyclopedia Home Page
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.
Site updated on 25 July 2024
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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 ...
Xtro
Film (1982). Ashley Productions/Amalgamated Film Enterprises. Directed by Harry Bromley Davenport. Written by Iain Cassie, Robert Smith, based on a screenplay by Michel Parry, Davenport. Cast includes Danny Brainin, Maryam d'Abo, Simon Nash, Philip Sayer and Bernice Stegers. 86 minutes. Colour. / UK sf/Horror exploitation movie in which a man, Sam Phillips (Sayer), is kidnapped by a UFO. Three ...
Barr, Mike W
(1952- ) US author of several Graphic Novels, the first of them – the future Arthurian Science Fantasy Camelot 3000 (December 1982-April 1985 Camelot 3000; graph 1988) with Brian Bolland – attracting interest as an early signal of attempts to move upmarket on the part of the American comics industry. Of sf interest are three ...
Circle, The
Film (2017). Image Nation Abu Dhabi, Likely Story, Playtone. Directed by James Ponsoldt. Written by James Ponsoldt and Dave Eggers, based on Eggers' The Circle (2013). Cast includes Emma Watson, Tom Hanks, John Boyega, Karen Gillan, Ellar Coltrane, Patton Oswalt, Glenne Headly and Bill Paxton. 110 minutes. Colour. / Directionless call centre employee Mae (Watson) secures an interview at the social media company The Circle through the ...
Sohl, Jerry
Working name of US author and former journalist Gerald Allan Sohl Sr (1913-2002), active from about 1950 in sf and other genres as Sohl and under various pseudonyms, including Nathan Butler and Sean Mei Sullivan. He began publishing sf with The 7th Order (March 1952 Galaxy; 2010 ebook) and soon released The Haploids (1952), the first of several 1950s novels whose slick surface and sharp economy of scale marked him as a professional ...
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 ...