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
Sponsor of the day: The League of Fan Funds
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 ...
Gardner, Erle Stanley
(1889-1970) US lawyer and author, most famous for the eighty-two volume Perry Mason detective series beginning with The Case of the Velvet Claws (1933). He had been extremely prolific from the start of his career around 1921, publishing at least 60 stories and a novel in Pulp magazines in 1933 alone; he spent almost no time at all on sf. His first story of genre interest was "Rain Magic" for (20 October 1928 Argosy ...
Johnston, E K
(? - ) Canadian archaeologist and author, active in fan fiction (see Fandom) from 2002; she has specialized in Young Adult fantasy from her first series, the Dragon Slayer of Trondheim sequence beginning with The Story of Owen (2014) and the Thousand Nights sequence beginning with A Thousand Nights (2015), which retells material from the Nights [for ...
Carey, Mike
(1959- ) UK Comics writer and author who also writes as M R Carey and as by Adam Blake; father of Louise Carey. He first came to notice for his comics, initially for two stories for 2000 AD, Th1rt3en (2002 2000 AD #1289-1299; graph 2005), a Space Opera and Carver Hale (2001 ...
McDougall, Sophia
(1979- ) UK author whose Romanitas sequence, comprising Romanitas (2005), Rome Burning (2007) and Savage City (2011), posits an Alternate History world in which Rome did not fall; the Jonbar Point, which may be obscure to most readers, is generated by the survival of Publius Helvius Pertinax (126-193 in this world) for twelve years after he becomes ...
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 ...