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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 ...
Barnes, Adrian
(1963-2018) UK-born teacher, journalist and author, in Canada from childhood, whose first novel, Satan a la Mode: A Devilish Piece of Good News (2006) is an Absurdist fantasy. His first sf novel, Nod (2012), comprises the manuscript of a man immune to a Near Future sleeping disorder – chronic sleep deprivation – that has effectively ended civilization, turning the sleepless into ...
Caldecott, Moyra
Pseudonym of South-African born author Olivia Brown (1927-2015), in the UK from 1951, almost all her work being fantasy for Young Adult readers [see The Encyclopedia of Fantasy under links below], beginning with Weapons of the Wolfhound (1976); she was best-known for the Tall Stones sequence beginning with The Tall Stones (1977; vt Guardians of the Tall Stones ...
Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man
Film (1951). Universal International Pictures. Directed by Charles Lamont. Screenplay by John Grant, Robert Lees and Frederic I Rinaldo, very loosely based on The Invisible Man (1897) by H G Wells. Cast includes Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Nancy Guild, Arthur Franz. 82 minutes. Black and white. / Boxer Tommy Nelson (Franz) is framed for the murder of a boxing promoter when he refuses to throw a bout as ordered by local gangsters. Knowing that ...
Fessenden, Laura Dayton
(1851-1924) US author of romances and other works, among which a tale for younger children, Moon Children (1902), is of modest interest for its depiction of an inhabited Moon, though the story soon turns on figures from Mother Goose. Of much greater interest is "2002": Childlife One Hundred Years from Now (1902), which describes inventively, for children, a Utopia containing a wide range of innovations in ...
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 ...