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 ...
Kane, Bob
Working name of US Comic-book writer, artist and animator Robert Kahn (1915-1998), who is best known for co-creating Batman with writer Bill Finger. Kane's career began as a trainee animator at the Max Fleischer Studio; he joined the Eisner-Eiger comic-book workshop in 1937, drawing gag cartoons and a comedy adventure strip called Peter Pupp. His first work published by National (which later became ...
Xia Jia
Pen-name of Wang Yao (1984- ), a Chinese author who trained initially as a physicist, before drifting into the humanities as a postgraduate. Her short stories have attracted critical acclaim from the outset, beginning with her early Yinhe Award recipient "Guan Yaojing de Pingzi" (April 2004 Kehuan Shijie trans Linda Rui Feng as "The Demon-Enslaving Flask" November 2012 ...
Secret of the Loch, The
Film (1934). Wyndham Productions/Ealing Studios. Produced by Bray Wyndham. Directed by Milton Rosmer. Written by Billie Bristow and Charles Bennett. Cast includes Gibson Gowland, Seymour Hicks, Nancy O'Neil and Frederick Peisley. 78 minutes. Black and white. / Eccentric Professor Heggie (Hicks) is determined to prove the existence of the fabled Loch Ness Monster, and with his helper Angus (Gowland) is working on a submersible to explore the ...
Beyond the Stellar Empire
Role Playing Game (1981). Adventures By Mail. Designed by Jack Everitt, Robert Cook, Michael Popolizio. / Beyond the Stellar Empire was a Play by Mail game created in the US, resembling a massively multiplayer Space Sim such as EVE Online (2003) but mediated entirely through text and run in slow motion. In 1992 the UK company KJC Games (KJC) ...
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 ...