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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 ...
Equilibrium
Film (2002). Dimension Films, Blue Tulip Productions. Directed and written by Kurt Wimmer. Cast includes Christian Bale, Sean Bean, Taye Diggs, William MacFadyen, Sean Pertwee and Emily Watson. Plus one Bernese Mountain dog pup. 107 minutes. Colour. / After the devastation of World War Three, a new regime now rules Near Future America, and by the year 2072 claims to have constructed a world safe from war; as Dupont ...
Swift, Morrison I
(1856-1946) US political thinker, agitator and author whose early anarchism, which brought him fame, decayed in his old age into antisemitic fascism; his novels come from his earlier years. He published three novels of some interest: A League of Justice; Or, Is It Right to Rob the Robbers? (1893) is set in a Near Future America bedevilled by inequality, but transformed into a just society by the eponymous league, which robs the rich and gives to the ...
Pearson, Alec G
(? -? ) UK author of a Lost Race tale, The City of Flame!: A Grand, Complete Story of Thrilling Adventure (15 May-7 August 1915 Gem; 1915), set in a City in the mysterious east ruled by a She figure. [JC] see also: Boys' Friend Library; Boys' Papers. /
Carpenter, Elmer J
(1907-1988) US author in whose Moonspin (1967) a foreign power gains control of Earth's weather, threatening to freeze the planet (see Climate Change; Weather Control); but a fight-back effort by Scientists on the Moon may save the day. An earlier novel, Nile Fever (1959), is not sf. [JC]
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 ...