As we move through the twenty-first century, the importance of science fiction to the study of English Literature is becoming increasingly apparent. The Science Fiction Handbook provides a comprehensive guide to the genre and how to study it for students new to the field. In particular, it provides detailed entries on major writers in the SF field who might be encountered on university-level English Literature courses, ranging from H.G. Wells and Philip K. Dick, to Doris Lessing and Geoff Ryman. Other features include an historical timeline, sections on key writers, critics and critical terms, and case studies of both literary and critical works. In the later sections of the book, the changing nature of the science fiction canon and its growing role in relation to the wider categories of English Literature are discussed in depth introducing the reader to the latest critical thinking on the field.
Industry Reviews
Science Fiction sets out to imagine different worlds and futures. Its own future is at every moment being changed by the real world - often painfully, but for the better. This book is a welcome, and welcoming, introduction and contribution to that uneven progress. -- Ken MacLeod * Morning Star *
The book is designed to present an overview of the history of both literary SF and scholarly analysis of the same, while acknowledging the debt cinema owes to it as well. The anticipated readership is clearly those engaging at an undergraduate level in the literary analysis of the SF genre. As such, the work is written so as to be accessible to non-specialists, although serious scholars will likely find the chapters worth perusing as well. -- Gareth J. Johnson, Nottingham Trent University, UK * Reference Reviews 28:8 *
This will be a satisfying book for teachers and students of science fiction. The nonlinear structure allows readers to select material that meets their needs, but the entire book is a worthy resource. Particularly fruitful are chapters describing changes in the canon and issues of gender, sexuality, and ethnicity; these offer theoretically oriented assessments of the growing inclusion of nonwhite male authors, characters, and perspectives in science fiction. Though scholarly in tone, this collection is clearly written and accessible to all audiences. Summing Up: Recommended. All readers. -- S. E. Vie, University of Central Florida * CHOICE *
This is a valuable new guide to an important body of literature central to our culture. It combines the functions of chronology, history and critical commentary in ways which are accessible to the reader, tracing out the origins and continuing evolution of science fiction as one of the most engaged cultural forms of our time. * David Seed, Professor of English, Liverpool University, UK *
Chapter by chapter, The Science Fiction Handbook builds a picture of sf's history and a critical guide to thinking about the genre. Culminating in a snapshot of where sf studies is right now, it is a really, really useful introduction to the defining literature of the 20th and 21st centuries. * Dr Mark Bould, Reader in Film & Literature, University of the West of England, UK *
This is an excellent introduction to science fiction and its key texts, authors, theories and concepts. It is the ideal companion to the study of the genre at undergraduate level and I will be recommending it to my own students. It will also be very useful for the reader or fan of science fiction who wishes to deepen their critical interest in the subject.
The book is very well organised, written by some of the most incisive critics of science fiction in a scholarly but accessible style. The Handbook is organised through thematic chapters, with very clear internal structures and with excellent, up-to-date reading lists.
I anticipate that the Handbook will become a go-to text for the study of science fiction at undergraduate level and beyond. * Dr Brian Baker, Lecturer in English Literature and Creative Writing, Lancaster University, UK *
This is a very useful overview of the genre, key concepts and recent scholarship. * Dr Paul March-Russell, University of Kent, UK *
