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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 ...
Electric Light Orchestra
Also known as ELO. British pop-rock band, founded by Roy Wood (1946- ), Jeff Lynne (1947- ) and Bev Bevan (1944- ), whose full names are Roy Adrian Wood, Jeffrey Lynne and Beverley Bevan. ELO were notable for their skill at blending classical orchestral and pop-rock music idioms. The band's first single "10538 Overture" (1972) was not sf, despite a title that seems to contain a far-future date (in fact it is the number ...
Philip K Dick Award
Award founded in 1983 by admirers of Philip K Dick, who died in 1982. Because much of Dick's classic sf was published with no fanfare and initially without a hardcover edition, it seemed appropriate to give the award to a distinguished work of sf or fantasy of the previous year first published in paperback. The award was initially suggested by Thomas M Disch, who was for several years its ...
Shibano Takumi
(1926-2010) Japanese author, translator and critic. Shibano began writing sf as Rei Kozumi (a play on the Japanese version of "Cosmic Ray") while a high-school mathematics teacher, a job he quit in 1977 to become a full-time translator. He published his first short story in 1951. Later, 1969-1975, he published three sf juveniles, including Hokkyoku City no Hanran ["Revolt in North Pole City"] (1977). But his influence on Japanese sf lay more in his work as editor and publisher of ...
Renard, Maurice
(1875-1939) French author, in active service throughout World War One, during which period he published nothing; generally regarded in France as the most important native sf writer in the first decades of the twentieth century, heavily influenced by the work of J-H Rosny aîné. His career began with the stories assembled as Fantomes et fantoches ["Phantoms and Puppets"] (coll ...
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 ...