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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 ...
Blood Beast Terror, The
Film (1968; vt The Vampire Beast Craves Blood US). Directed by Vernson Sewell. Written by Peter Bryan. Cast includes Peter Cushing, Robert Flemyng, Vanessa Howard, Wanda Ventham and William Warrender. 88 minutes, cut to 80 minutes for home video release. Colour. / Scotland Yard detective-inspector Quennell (Cushing) investigates a series of bizarre deaths, mostly of young men who have had all the blood drained from their bodies. He consults Professor Carl Mellinger (Flemyng), ...
Cahun, Léon
(1841-1900) French Orientalist and author whose Les aventures du Capitaine Magon; ou, une exploration Phénicienne milles ans avant l'ère chrétien (1875; trans Ellen E Frewer as The Adventures of Captain Mago; or, a Phoenician Expedition, B.C. 1000 1876) follows the Phoenician Captain on a Fantastic Voyage, first northwards to Finland, then around Africa, visiting (en passant) the Queen of Sheba. ...
Ultravox
UK synth-pop band, who as "Ultravox!" (with exclamation mark) released a first eponymous album Ultravox! (1977). A modishly alienated work that uses synthesizers in a doomy and rather melodramatic manner, it nevertheless achieves some atmospheric moments, as in the urban noir of "Saturday Night In The City of the Dead", or the Robot-themed "I Want To Be A Machine". This last song, one of the band's early successes, situates itself in a subordinate ...
Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons
UK tv series (1967-1968). A Century 21 Production for ITC. Created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson. Produced by Reg Hill. Script editor Tony Barwick. Writers included Barwick (most episodes), Shane Rimmer. Directors included Brian Burgess, Ken Turner, Alan Perry, Bob Lynn. One season, 32 25-minute episodes. Colour. / This was the fifth sf television series made by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson in SuperMarionation ...
Robinson, Roger
(1943- ) UK computer programmer, bibliographer and publisher, active in UK Fandom for many years. The Writings of Henry Kenneth Bulmer (1983 chap; rev 1984 chap) is an exhaustive Bibliography of one of the most prolific sf writers, Kenneth Bulmer, and Who's Hugh?: An SF Reader's Guide to Pseudonyms (1987) is similarly exhaustive in its ...