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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 ...
Earnshaw, Brian
(1929-2014) UK teacher and author of the fine chase thriller And Mistress Pursuing (1966); his complex sf thriller, Planet in the Eye of Time (1968), encompasses, via Time Travel, the period of the crucifixion (see Christ; Religion) and addresses the problems of a dying Galaxy. / Earnshaw's later work within the genre was all for children (see ...
Robotron 2084
Videogame (1982). Vid Kidz (VK). Designed by Eugene Jarvis, Larry DeMar. Platforms: Arcade, Others. / Robotron is a two-dimensional arcade game (see Videogames) in which the player must defend the last human family against unending waves of hostile Robots. The game is notable for its frantic pace. Enemies attack continuously from all sides, while the player must use two joysticks to fire ...
Sobel, Irwin Philip
(1901-1991) US paediatrician and author whose second novel, The Virus Killer (1975), is an sf thriller in which a Pandemic caused by an unknown virus (see Medicine) threatens New York and the world. [JC]
Rollo, William
(? - ) UK author of The Big Wheel (1984), a Near Future Technothriller set in near space, where the Big Wheel Space Station is a US strategic command centre in geosynchronous orbit, rivalled by the USSR's Astrogorodok on the far side of Earth. Escalating ecological Disaster (driven chiefly by ...
Nicholls, Peter
(1939-2018) Australian editor and author, primarily a critic and historian of sf through his creation and editing of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction [see below]; resident in the UK 1970-1988, in Australia from 1988; worked as an academic in English literature (1962-1968, 1971-1977), scripted television documentaries, was a Harkness Fellow in Film-making (1968-1970) in the USA, worked as a publisher's editor (1982-1983), often broadcast film and book reviews on BBC Radio from 1974 and ...