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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 ...
Antheil, George
(1900-1959) US composer, performer and author, best known for the glaringly avant-garde Ballet Mécanique (1923-1924), originally conceived as a score for a nineteen-minute experimental film directed by Fernand Léger (1881-1955) and Dudley Murphy (1897-1968), but soon detached from that project and expanded. The rhetorical (and in some performances actually staged) transfiguration of human participants into Dadaist, surreally Robot-like ...
Landis, S M
(1829-1902) US clergyman and man of medicine (but not a doctor) whose theories about physical and mental health are promulgated in the 100 chapters of An Entirely New Feature of a Thrilling Novel!: Entitled, The Social War of the Year 1900; Or, the Conspirators and Lovers!: A Lesson for Saints and Sinners (1872), in which a healer, whose powers are sufficient for him to be described as a proto-Superman, combats evil and brings good sense (and a savage ...
Frau im Mond, Die
Film (1929; vt By Rocket to the Moon; vt The Girl in the Moon; vt The Woman in the Moon). UFA. Directed by Fritz Lang. Written by Lang and Thea von Harbou, based on Frau im Mond (1928; trans as The Girl in the Moon 1930; cut vt The Rocket to the Moon 1930) by von Harbou. Cast includes Willy Fritsch, Gustl Gstettenbaur, Gerda Maurus, Klaus Pohl, Fritz Rasp and ...
Yumemakura Baku
(1951- ) Writing name of Mineo Yoneyama, a fiercely prolific Japanese author whose work spans hundreds of volumes encompassing the depths of Pulp and the heights of literary awards. The concentration here is on his works as author, although much of his impact outside Japan is as the scriptwriter or original source for adaptations of his work into other media, including Manga, ...
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 ...