SF Encyclopedia Home Page
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 ...
Utopias
The concept of a utopia or "Ideal State" is linked to religious ideas of Heaven or the Promised Land and to folkloristic ideas like the Isles of the Blessed, but it is essentially a future-historical goal, to be achieved by the active efforts of human beings, not a transcendental goal reserved as a reward for those who follow a particularly virtuous path in life. The term was coined by Thomas More in Utopia (Latin edition 1516; trans ...
Ausubel, Ramona
(? - ) US teacher and author who began to publish work of genre interest with "Safe Passage" in One Story for 10 April 2010, her best known story being "Atria" (4 April 2011 The New Yorker), whose protagonist, mysteriously impregnated, gives birth to a seal, and soon lovingly introduces her newborn child into its element. The tale was included in her first collection, A Guide to Being Born (coll 2013). In its sudden turns and ...
Carter, Stephen L
(1954- ) US lawyer and author, who also writes as by A L Shields; much of his work is nonfiction, arguing a moderate Christian take on political and cultural matters. Most of his novels are thrillers, though The Impeachment of Abraham Lincoln (2012) is an Alternate History tale whose Jonbar Point – Lincoln survives an assassination attempt in 1865 – leads into a rancorous ...
Splice
Film (2010). Gaumont presents a Copperheart Entertainment/Dark Castle Entertainment production in association with Senator Entertainment Co. Directed by Vincenzo Natali. Written by Natali and Antoinette Terry Bryant and Doug Taylor; story by Natali and Bryant. Cast includes Adrien Brody, Delphine Chanéac, Brandon McGibbon and Sarah Polley. 104 minutes. Colour. / A long-gestated homage – including an anonymous contribution by Jonathan ...
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 ...