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 ...
Neill, A S
(1883-1973) UK educationist who gained fame for revolutionary theories about the teaching of children and who cofounded the International School – which operated initially on the Continent from 1921, then (from 1924) under the name Summerhill in the UK – to put them into practice. Fictionalized accounts like A Dominie's Log (1916) and its sequels popularized his arguments, and his sf novel, The Last Man Alive (1938), was read aloud to his pupils. The ...
Speculative Fiction and Beyond
US Online Magazine produced by John Bradt, Irvine, California. It saw just one preview issue in July 1996 before Bradt was involved in a serious car accident and was unable to continue. His dream was to produce the first independent professional online magazine, taking a lead from Omni Online; he had great plans, all of which came to nothing. Perhaps surprisingly, that first issue still survives on the internet (see link ...
Pineiro, R J
(1961- ) Cuban-born author, in US from the age of 16, who specializes in Technothrillers, including Siege of Lightning (1993), Ultimatum (1994), Breakthrough (1997), none of strong sf interest. Some later tales of higher sf interest include 01-01-00 (1999), whose protagonists find the secret of a deadly very Near Future ...
Corlett, William
(1938-2005) UK actor, playwright and author, in the latter capacity mostly for older children, though much of his later work, which openly explores the lives of gay men, was written for adults. He is of sf interest mainly for the Gate of Eden trilogy, comprising The Gate of Eden (1974), an essentially associational tale which he adapted for Television as The Gate of Eden (1979). The Land Beyond (1975), which ...
Clute, John
(1940- ) Canadian critic, editor and author, in the UK from 1969; married to Judith Clute from 1964, partner of Elizabeth Hand since 1996. He began to publish work of genre interest with an sf-tinged poem "Carcajou Lament" in Triquarterly for Winter 1960 [ie Autumn 1959]; he began consistently publishing sf reviews in his "New Fiction" column for the Toronto Star (1966-1967), and later in ...