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 ...
Cole, Ira A
(1883-1973) US author of a Lost Race novel, Ibe of Atlan (1947), set in nineteenth-century Colorado, where an advanced civilization is found living in secret. Cole corresponded with H P Lovecraft and others in a round-robin discussion entitled "The Kleicomolo". [JC]
Captain Justice
The hero of a long-running series of boys' stories (see Boys' Papers) published in Modern Boy, a weekly magazine published by Amalgamated Press through the 1930s. The stories were written by Murray Roberts (Robert Murray Graydon) and later – following his death – by John Garbutt. Very British, Captain Justice wore white ducks, smoked cigars and worked out of Titanic ...
Pedreira, David
(? - ) US journalist and author whose Near Future sf novel Gunpowder Moon (2018) focuses on crises in mining the Moon in 2072, a decade after Climate Change has ruined the home planet. Various partially crippled imperial domains (see Imperialism) survive, including America and China, and continue their savage spats. ...
Colossus, the Forbin Project
Film (1969; vt The Forbin Project). Universal. Directed by Joseph Sargent. Written by James Bridges, based on Colossus (1966) by D F Jones. Cast includes Eric Braeden, Susan Clark, Paul Frees (uncredited) Gordon Pinsent and William Schallert. 100 minutes. Colour. / A supercomputer, Colossus, is designed by Dr Charles Forbin (Braeden) to take control of the US defence network. After being activated and lauded by the President ...
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 ...