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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 ...
James, Dolan
(? - ) US author of a mildly pornographic sf novel, Space Swappers (1970; vt Solar System Swingers 1992 as by Dodie St James), in which two male "swingers", frustrated by exiguous Sex on Earth, go to Mars where green-skinned humanoid females are easy prey. No hard data has surfaced about the latter title. [JC]
Peril, Bruce
(? - ) Author – almost certainly UK, possibly pseudonymous – of the Children's SF novel Rocket to the Moon: A Story for Boys (1946). Set in Near Future Britain a few years after an unmentioned World War Two, the tale follows a young newspaper reporter's collaboration with Scientists who have invented a ...
Verne, Michel
(1861-1925) French author, son of Jules Verne, with whose late and posthumous career he is almost exclusively associated [for discussion see entry for his father], and three of whose posthumous novels he either wrote entirely or entirely recomposed. They are L'Agence Thompson and C° (17 October-25 December 1907 Le Journal; 1907 2vols) as by Jules Verne, Les Naufragés du "Jonathan" (26 July-17 ...
Craig, Colin
(? -? ) US author – possibly the pseudonym of Henry Spencer Booth, in whose name his only novel is copyrighted – whose A Suitor from the Stars (1928) confusedly portrays Earth as part of a Galactic Empire – unbeknownst to Earthlings – and subject to incursions by mysterious Aliens pursuing other mysterious aliens, one of whom is about to marry a beautiful coed. ...
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 ...