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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 ...
Night that Panicked America, The
Made-for-tv film (1975). ABC TV. Directed by Joseph Sargent. Written by Nicholas Meyer, Anthony Wilson, based partly on the text of the original 1938 Radio play War of the Worlds by Howard Koch. Cast includes Michael Constantine, Cliff De Young, Vic Morrow and Paul Shenar. 100 minutes, cut to 78 minutes. Colour. / The film recreates the 1938 Orson ...
Most Dangerous Man Alive, The
Film (1958). Trans-Global/Columbia. Directed by Allan Dwan. Written by James Leicester, Phillip Rock, based on a story by Rock, Michael Pate. Cast includes Anthony Caruso, Debra Paget, Ron Randell and Elaine Stewart. 82 minutes, cut to 76 minutes. Black and white. / In this unusual blend of sf and crime movie, a framed gangster (Randell) escapes from Prison and hides out in the desert, where he is caught up in a nuclear test (see ...
Johnson, Bill
(1956-2022) US author, journalist, technical writer and business administrator, a Clarion Science Fiction Writers' Workshop graduate, who began to publish work of genre interest with "Stormfall" in Clarion SF (anth 1977) edited by Kate Wilhelm. Much of his fiction is strongly flavoured by his South Dakota origins, as in his best-known story "We Will Drink a Fish Together ..." (May 1997 ...
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 ...
Clute, John
(1940- ) Canadian critic, editor and author, in the UK from 1969; married to Judith Clute from 1964, partner of Elizabeth Hand since 1996. He began to publish work of genre interest with an sf-tinged poem "Carcajou Lament" in Triquarterly for Winter 1960 [ie Autumn 1959]; he began consistently publishing sf reviews in his "New Fiction" column for the Toronto Star (1966-1967), and later in ...