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 ...
MacLean, Katherine
(1925-2019) US author who took a BA from Barnard College, New York, did postgraduate study in psychology, became a quality-control lab technician in a food factory, and subsequently served as a college lecturer in creative writing and literature. Much of MacLean's output consisted of short stories, most of which, including her first, "Defense Mechanism" in October 1949, appeared in Astounding; as in much of her later work, Psi Powers are ...
Live Action Role Playing
Term used to describe a form of Role Playing Game in which players physically act out their parts, as opposed to speaking them in the manner of a radio drama. An actual environment (for example, a castle or a city) is used to stand in for the game's fictional setting. Two main forms exist: those in which physical actions such as combat are enacted using padded weapons and similar devices, and those in which a set of symbolic rules (or simply the judgement ...
Son of Kong
Film (1933). RKO. Directed by Ernest B Schoedsack. Written by Ruth Rose. Cast includes Robert Armstrong, Noble Johnson, Helen Mack and Frank Reicher. 70 minutes. Black and white. / This film was made immediately after King Kong (1933) as a small-scale sequel. The hero returns to Skull Island and discovers Kong's son "Little Kong", a 20ft (6m) white ape with all the characteristics of a friendly puppy. Various prehistoric ...
Lost on Earth
US tv series (1997). USA Network original productions for the USA Television Network. Produced by Mark Nasser, David Salzman, others. Directors included Gary Brown, Paul Fusco and Phil Ramuno. Writers included Wayne Kline and Frank Santopadre. Cast includes Tim Conlon, Stacy Galina, Paul Gleason and Drew Massey (voice only). 13 25-minute episodes. Colour. / At KTEE-TV station, reporter Dave Rudy (Conlon) is nearly fired after making a major mistake on the air; he accepts demotion to ...
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 ...