Science Fiction

George Slusser's book is a very welcome and uniquely ambitious contribution to science-fiction studies. It offers not only a valuable corrective to the traditional Anglophone histories, but also stretches out intellectually to consider the nature of fiction, and the impact of science on modern mentality. This is a book which can be read with profit by all critics of literature, whatever the genre.

George Slusser's posthumously published volume is a remarkable and ambitious attempt to trace the development of science fiction, undertaken with an impressively wide familiarity with many different texts and literary traditions. Both those who agree with Slusser's general viewpoint and those who do not will find it an informative and challenging work. Edited from Slusser's unpublished material by his longtime colleague Gary Westfahl, and graced with a penetrating critical introduction by N. Katherine Hayles and a personal memoir by Gregory Benford, this book deserves a place on the shelves of everyone seriously interested in science fiction.

I applaud George Slusser's expansive efforts to see outside the generic box in terms of broadening science fiction to encompass world literature. Science Fiction: Toward a World Literature is newly remarkable because Gary Westfahl rescued his deceased mentor's work and infused it with life. Slusser's bold vision of science fiction as rightfully global literature currently underscores that every science fiction scholar is present on the planet for a limited time. Westfahl addresses the science fiction scholarly community's cohesiveness. He assures us that when we are no longer on Earth our books will be remembered--and our memory will be cherished.

Who but George Slusser would have had the command of languages, literature, and theory to attempt this book's audacious project? Using the concept of 'paradigm shifts' that Thomas Kuhn applied to revolutions in science, Slusser explores the origins and global significance of that modern cultural phenomenon we call 'science fiction.' You may argue with the overarching theory, but you will marvel at, and enjoy, his deep and provocative readings of the texts.