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We are sad to report the deaths of D C Fontana (1939-2019) on 2 December
2019, and Andrew Weiner
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We are sad to report the death of Gahan Wilson on 21 November at the
age of 89. He wrote several books, but for se
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For various reasons it's been a tough year at SF
Encyclopedia headquarters. John
Clute broke his femur and is still rec
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As reported in the
December issue of Ansible, the Bank of England's
longlist of past UK scientists who have bee
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The annual World Science Fiction
Convention always generates a great many updates for the SF
Encyclopedia, and this year's event
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The Scots sf and fantasy author Michael
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At a ceremony held at Foyles in Charing Cross Road, London, on
18 July, the 2018 Arthur C
Clarke Award (taking the traditiona
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Harlan Ellison
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Gardner Dozois, after a
short illness, died in
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Kate Wilhelm died on 8 March
2018
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We announce with great regret the death on 6 March of Peter Nicholls (1939-2018), who
conceived and edited th
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Losing Ursula K. Le
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John Clute writes: It was only
in early 2013, almo
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Brian Aldiss, universally
acclaimed as a major sf writer, anthologist, critic, and general
mover and
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On 27 July 2017, the Arthur C Clarke Award went
to Colson Whitehead for his
novel 
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Less than four months after our slightly bemused
announcement that the SF Encyclopedia Picture
Gallery had more than 17,000 cover images, the total h
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Achievement unlocked this month: the SF Encyclopedia
now has more than 17,000 entries (most of the recent additions
being new author articles by the terrifyingly
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We really meant to have a special celebration when the SF
Encyclopedia word count reached the semi-magi
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The SF Encyclopedia and SF Gateway are both about to
celebrate their fifth anniversary. According to the relent
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Many sf awards were presented at this year's Worldcon (MidAmeriCon II in Kansas City,
17-21 Augus
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Good to see that
the Guardian story
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The SF Encyclopedia Picture Gallery has been growing
steadily since its launch in May 2013, with most of the cover
images com
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Last night's site update finally took the SF
Encyclopedia past five million words. As you know, Professor,
the first edition of 1979 ran to some 730,00
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To mark Independence Day in the USA, a gigantic alien battleship
now hovering above the SF Encyclopedia will reduce
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Sir Terry Pratchett, famed
and widely loved creator of the Discworld saga and
m
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We used this headline just a year ago, but recycling is supposed
to be a good thing.... As usual, the SF Encyclopedia
editors ha
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The main SF Encyclopedia and SF Gateway sites are scheduled
for downtime on
-

We seem to have been too busy since the London Worldcon to issue
one of these progress reports, but SF Encyclopedia
progress continue
-

We'd been hoping for some while to push the SF
Encyclopedia text past 4,500,000 words in time for Lonc
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Frank M Robinson died on
30 June at the age of 87. His long publishing career began in
the 1940s and
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Daniel Keyes, author of the
powerful and unforgettable sf tragedy Flowers for Algernon
(April
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We regret to report the deaths this month of two well-known --
indeed internationally famous -- genre artists: H R Giger on 12 May 2014 and
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The 2014 Arthur C Clarke
Award went to Ann Leckie for
Ancillary Justice, her much-pr
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Announced over the Easter weekend: the
British SF Association Award winners, the
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The latest Philip K Dick
Award, for the best genre paperback original published in the
USA during 2013, went to Ben H
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With the 2014 London
Worldcon getting closer, we thought it would be fun to put
together a slideshow of L
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Lucius Shepard, one of the
sf world's most remarkable yet academically neglected storytel
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As usual, the SF Encyclopedia editors have been toiling
away behind the scenes. In mid-February the total text size crept
beyond
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The main SF Encyclopedia and SF Gateway sites are scheduled
for roughly
-

Colin Wilson, initially famous
for his philosophical exploration of literary and real-w
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Doris Lessing, the
distinguished literary author who besides many other honours in her
lo
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On 4 November 2013, the ever-increasing tally of images added to
the <
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William Harrison, the
US author and screenwriter known to sf readers for his 1973 story
"Roller Ball Murder" -- which
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The main SF Encyclopedia and SF Gateway sites are scheduled
for up to s
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Another of the long-time sf greats has left us: Frederik Pohl died on 2 September at the age
of 93. His granddaughter Emily P
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As of Monday 12 August the SF Encyclopedia has
14,000 entries. Not a round enough number to seem magical, but
cheering all the same.
In
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A couple more small landmarks. On 1 August, after a fairly hefty
SF Encyclopedia site update, John Clute's personal tot
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Another of the genre's grand old men has gone. Richard Matheson died in Los Angeles on
23 June. As our entry says, he was a master
-

Iain Banks died on 9 June
2013, all too soon after his terminal cancer diagnosis earlier in
the year. He was only 59. Many long obituaries and appr
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It's that time of year again. The main SF Encyclopedia
site (the one you're looking at now) will be unavailable from some
time early in the morning on
-

The SF Encyclopedia editors have long wanted to add a
little tasty eye candy to this website's massive textual
presentation. Now at last we have a new page for t
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Ray Harryhausen, one of the
pioneering greats of sf/fantasy film effects -- he was particularly
famed for his work in stop-motion an
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EightSquaredCon,
the 64th British Eastercon, is currently taking place in Bradford,
Yorkshire. Editors of this Enc
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Richard E Geis, novelist and publisher of
the fanzine Psychotic and the
long-running semiprozine of sf criticis
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As subtly hinted in the headline, the SF Encyclopedia
site update of 21 January 2013 took us comfortably past 4,000,000
words of text. It's tempting to
-

Gerry Anderson, creator of
the much-loved Thunderbirds and
other popular children's sf tel
-

The Strugatski or
Strugatsky brothers, Arkady and Boris in collaboration, were
Russia's best-known and most-translated sf
-

Today, 8 November 2012, the SF Encyclopedia reached and
passed the 3.8 million word mark. The 3,800,000th word was written
by Contributing Editor Gary
-

Alan Hunter, who died on 1
August 2012 after a long illness, was not only a fine artist but a
generous man who drew covers and interior
-

Now we have photographs of them all, we've added a discreet page for
the Encyclopedia's 2012 awards. Norma
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The SF Encyclopedia team is enormously thrilled to have
been voted the Hugo Award for Best Related work at the 2012
ceremony during the Chicago Worldcon on 2 S
-

Today it was confirmed that the unopposed London bid for the
72nd World SF Convention in 2014 was, as expected, successful in
the site selection voting at the Chica
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Several long-planned SF Encyclopedia website
improvements went live on 21 August 2012. These include:
? A new "widget" (as the technical people call i
-

There is general mourning in sf circles for the loss of Harry Harrison, who died on 15 August
(circa 1am) in the Ea
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Now it can be revealed, with 2012 Hugo voting safely closed: we
were encouraged to provide some exclusive SF Encyclopedia
extras for inclusion in the Chicon Hu
-

Sad to record the death of Gore Vidal (1925-2012) on 31 July at the
age of 86. A gifted mainstream novelist, he used sf and fant
-

Another small milestone: the editors are modestly pleased that
the latest SF Encyclopedia site update has taken us past
3.6 million words.
Un
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Ray Bradbury, one of the best-known sf
and fantasy authors in the world, died in Los Angeles on the
morning of 6 June 2012. The Martian Chronicles (coll of
linked stories 1950) is among the great mythmaking
wo
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Leo Dillon,
who with his wife and collaborator Diane Dillon formed a remarkable
sf/fantasy artistic team, died on 26 May; Diane Dillon survives
him.
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Regular SF Encyclopedia updates continue; there is
still much work to be done. The 2 May presentation of the Arthur C Clarke Award to
The Testament of Jessie Lamb by Jane Rogers naturally led to a
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Ernest Callenbach, author
of Ecotopia, died on 16 April.
-
We are, of course, deeply thrilled to be included in the 2012 Hugo
shortlist, Best Related Book category. The day after the Hugo list was announced, the SFE
won the BSFA Award
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Peter Phillips, author of
the pioneering Dream Hacking
story "Dreams Are Secred", died on 28 March.
-
Christine
Brooke-Rose, the critic and experimental novelist who wrote
several unusual works of sf, died on 21 March aged 89.
-
M A R Barker (Muhammad
Abd-al-Rahman Barker), an important role playing game designer who
created the world of Tékumel, died on
16 March.
-
Jean Giraud, the major French
sf/fantasy artist who also published as Moebius, died on 10
March.
-
John Christopher -- known
to friends by his real name Sam Youd -- died on 3 February at the
age of 89. His books include the classic disaster novel The
Death of Grass (1956; vt No Blade of
Grass 1957)
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Ardath Mayhar died on 1 February 2012,
as reported here.
Her SFE entry has
been slightly updated.
The official author website is
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We are very pleased (and also surprised, since this is still a
work in progress) that the SF Encyclopedia has been
shortlisted in the Best Nonfiction category of the British SF
Association Awards for 2011 work.
Other contenders in the same category include works by our
Co
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It's now three months since the SF Encyclopedia site
was launched. We, the editors, and the website experts at STEEL
have made a great many changes since October 2011, adding new
material, correcting text errors and omissions, and fixing problems
with the site.
The SFE no
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Sadly, the authors T J Bass and
Russell Hoban (of Riddley
Walker fame) both died on 13 December 2011.
Their entries will be updated as soon as possible. (Now
done.)
You can read more at t
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On October 3rd, the beta text of the third edition of The
Encyclopedia of Science Fiction went live.
To answer some Frequently Asked Questions:
Q: What exactly is a beta text?
In this context, it means a text of the SFE that isn't yet
complete. W