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
Sponsor of the day: Handheld Press
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 ...
Favreau, Jon
(1966- ) US filmmaker and actor, who has worked his way diligently up the directorial lists by a willingness to take on a wide range of studio projects across a range of fantasy genres. Already an established screen actor by the mid-nineties, he wrote and/or directed a series of films with Vince Vaughn, beginning with Swingers (1996), as well as a number of films and series episodes for television. After a hit with the Christmas comedy Elf ...
Almond, David
(1951- ) UK author, much of his work being nonfantastic, though illuminated by hints that the seemingly ordinary world cannot be fully understood in mundane terms; most of his early work was written for a Young Adult readership; some later titles have been released in both young adult and adult formats. His first stories were assembled as Sleepless Nights (coll 1985) and A Kind of Heaven (coll 1997); his first ...
Cohen, Sol
(1903-1984) US editor and publisher who edited the Avon Science Fiction and Fantasy Reader in 1953. He was publisher of Galaxy between December 1962 and June 1965, and of If between November 1962 and May 1965; he launched Worlds of Tomorrow in April 1963. In 1965 Cohen's Ultimate Publishing Co bought the magazines ...
Bateman, Robert
(1922-1973) UK author, primarily involved in radio and television work. It is tentatively presumed that the three books here described are by this Robert Bateman (there are several). His version of The Hands of Orlac (1961) novelizes the 1960 film, which is based with some remoteness on the original novel, Les mains d'Orlac (15 May-12 July 1920 L'Intransigeant; 1921; trans as The Hands of Orlac 1929; new trans 1981) by Maurice ...
Nicholls, Peter
(1939-2018) Australian editor and author, primarily a critic and historian of sf through his creation and editing of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction [see below]; resident in the UK 1970-1988, in Australia from 1988; worked as an academic in English literature (1962-1968, 1971-1977), scripted television documentaries, was a Harkness Fellow in Film-making (1968-1970) in the USA, worked as a publisher's editor (1982-1983), often broadcast film and book reviews on BBC Radio from 1974 and ...