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.
Site updated on 25 July 2024
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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 ...
It's About Time
US tv series (1966-1967). Redwood/Gladasaya/CBS. Produced by George M Cahan. Executive producer Sherwood Schwartz. Directed by Jack Arnold, Cahan and others. Writers: Schwartz and others. Created by Schwartz. Cast includes Frank Aletter (Captain Mac MacKenzie), Pat Cardi (Breer), Imogene Coca (Shad), Kathleen Freeman (Mrs Cave Boss), Mary Grace (Mlor), Jack Mullaney (Lt Hector Wyland), Mike Mazurki (Clon), Cliff Norton (Cave Boss), Joe E Ross (Gronk), ...
Gallego, S G
(1883-1944) Spanish-born author, in US from an undetermined point; John Smith, Emperor (1944) is a Near Future tale whose culture-Hero protagonist uses his Invention of a secret device to impose peace on the world, and to institute a Utopia where anything that the protagonist considers immoral (Sex is particularly offensive to him) is made ...
Leonardo da Vinci
(1452-1519) Florentine painter, sculptor, inventor and military engineer, celebrated since the Enlightenment as the epitome of Renaissance creative genius and frequently invoked as an sf Icon of these qualities. He had no surname as such, "Leonardo" being his given name, "di ser Piero" designating his natural father (he was illegitimate), and "da Vinci" indicating that he was born in the town of Vinci; he is, therefore, normally cited as Leonardo, or Leonardo da Vinci. ...
Counterblast
Film (1948; vt Devil's Plot US). British National Films/Pathé Pictures Ltd. UK/Herbert Bregstein US. Produced by Louis H Jackson. Directed by Paul L Stein. Written by Jack Whittingham from a story by Guy Morgan. Cast includes Robert Beatty, Anthony Eustrel, Mervyn Johns and Nova Pilbeam. 90 minutes. Black and white. / 1948: Nazi bacteriologist Dr Bruckner (Johns), "The Beast of Ravensbruck", escapes from a POW camp with two colleagues. He murders Australian Dr Forrester ...
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 ...