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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 ...
Machen, Arthur
(1863-1947) Welsh translator, actor and author, born Arthur Llewellyn Jones, his parents adding Machen apparently in an attempt to please a rich relative. The Welsh landscape of his childhood visually dominated his writings all his life, serving as a body English of the ecstasy of reality or realities only "visible" through words that meant more than they could literally say. He was in London for long periods from 1880. The death of his father in 1887 provided him with enough money to marry and ...
Strachey, John St Loe
(1860-1927) UK journalist, editor (in collaboration with C L Graves) and author of suavely put and extremely influential left-centre opinions; he dominated The Spectator from about 1890 until shortly before his death. This mind-set is reflected in his two books of sf interest: The Great Bread Riots; Or, What Came of Fair Trade (1885 chap) as S L S, a Near Future tale told as from the year 1934, describes the ...
Poyer, Joe
Working name of US author Joseph John Poyer (1939-2018) for his fiction, beginning with "Mission 'Red Clash'" in Analog for December 1965, Analog being a magazine with which he was closely associated. Of his novels, Operation Malacca (1968), about the use of talking dolphins for military purposes, and North Cape (1969) are Technothrillers. Tunnel War (1979) is an ...
Astronautes, Les
French short animated film (1959). Directed by Walerian Borowczyk in collaboration with Chris Marker. Produced by Anatole Dauman. Cast includes Michel Bochet, Ligia Branice and Philippe Lifschitz. 14 minutes. Black and white. / A Scientist builds a Spaceship with a periscope, which he uses first to spy on a woman undressing, then to travel into space. After ...
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 ...