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.
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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 ...
Fane, Julian
(1927-2009) UK author of literary bent whose Dystopia, Revolution Island (1979), was one of the last UK visions of a union-dominated left-wing future. It was published just before the incoming administration of Margaret Thatcher (1979-1990) put an end, for the century of its publication, to the local relevance of this category of the dreadful warning. [JC]
God is An Astronaut
Irish three-piece band, whose instrumental albums generate a spacy, evocative atmosphere non-specifically reminiscent of sf, an effect underscored by their track titles: "Fall from the Stars" on The End of the Beginning (2002), "Infinite Horizons" and "Suicide by Star" on All Is Violent, All Is Bright (2005). The eponymously-titled album God Is an Astronaut (2007) is their most cohesive and emotionally effective, and traces an oblique science-fictional ...
Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius
Animated film (2001). Nickelodeon Movies/Paramount Pictures. Directed by John A Davis. Written by Davis and David N Weiss & J David Stem and Steve Oedekerk, based on a story by Davis and Oedekerk. Cast includes Debi Derryberry, Rob Paulsen and Patrick Stewart. 79 minutes. Colour. / The usual pattern for Edisonade in Children's SF is that our young inventor (see Invention) must take many ...
Comfort, Alex
(1920-2000) UK medical doctor, poet and author of significant popular work in the fields of sexology and gerontology, being perhaps best known for The Joy of Sex (1972; frequently revised), many of whose interior illustrations were by Chris Foss. Before World War Two he established an extremely precocious reputation for his poetry and fiction, and for the pacifism he espoused rigorously during the years of conflict (later, in 1961, in connection ...
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 ...