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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 ...
KULT: The Temple of Flying Saucers
Videogame (1989; vt Chamber of the Sci-Mutant Priestess in the US). ERE Informatique. Designed by "Arbeit von Spacekraft" (Johan Robson). Platforms: Amiga, AtariST, DOS. / In the future of The Temple of Flying Saucers, humanity has split into three distinct subspecies after a (presumably nuclear) apocalypse: the Psionically gifted Tuners, the physically mutated Protozorqs and the unaltered Normals. The player ...
Starman
1. Film (1984). Delphi Productions II/Columbia. Directed by John Carpenter. Written by Bruce A Evans, Raynold Gideon (and Dean Riesner, uncredited). Cast includes Karen Allen, Jeff Bridges, Richard Jaeckel and Charles Martin Smith. 115 minutes. Colour. / Carpenter ventured into Spielberg territory in this sweet – possibly saccharine – story of a wide-eyed innocent arriving from space. The ...
Counterfactual
Item of Terminology sometimes used to denote the Alternate History subgenre, thus avoiding the usual sf term. This avoidance may indicate either dislike of the conventional but grammatically awkward phrase "alternate history" or – regrettably often – an attempt to distance "respectable" or "literary" use of this traditional sf technique from science fiction itself. A narrative described as counterfactual will ...
Heroclix
Miniature models based Wargame (2002). WizKids. Designed by Jordan Weisman, Seth Johnson. / HeroClix is a Collectible Miniatures Game based on Superhero Comics. Players purchase prepainted figures and then assemble teams with which to act out superpowered battles on printed maps. The figures are ingeniously designed, using a dial in the base ...
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 ...