Product Description

The first comprehensive critical history of SF for thirty years, this book traces the origin and development of science fiction from Ancient Greece, via its rebirth in the seventeenth century, up to the present day. Concentrating on literary SF and (in the later chapters) cinema and TV, it also discusses the myriad forms this genre takes in the contemporary world, including a chapter on graphic novels, SF pop music, visual art and ufology. The author is ideally placed to write it: both an academic literary critic and also an acclaimed creative writer of science fiction, with five novels and many short stories to his credit. Written in lively, accessible prose, this study is specifically designed to bridge the worlds of academic criticism and the SF fandom.

The History of Science Fiction argues that, even today, this flourishing cultural idiom is shaped by the forces that determined its rise to prominence in the 1600s: the dialogue between Protestant and Catholic worldviews, the emerging technologies of the industrial age, and the cultural anxieties and excitements of a rapidly changing world. Now available in paperback, it will be of interest to all students, researchers and fans of SF.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #880216 in Books
• Published on: 2005-11-28
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 392 pages

The Guardian
'This impressive tome is ambitious in its scope, tracing SF's origins back to the fantastic voyages of the ancient Greek novel'

Stephen Baxter, The British Science Fiction Association
`... the most significant history of the genre since "The Trillion Year Spree" by Brian Aldiss and David Wingrove'

Strange Horizons
'[A] refreshingly irreverent attempt to look at science fiction without blinkers.'

Customer Reviews

Excellent with one puzzling ommision
Comprehensive and academic yet accessible, this is one of the best histories of science fiction I've read. Taking science fiction from its earliest, and sometimes controversial, roots, via the twin themes of rational and magical philosophy or belief systems to today's complex set of conventions which define modern science fiction.

The importance of this work is difficult to overstate, as a sometimes neglected genre of literature powerful academic works of history and criticism are at a premium and this, combined with the equally excellent encyclopaedia of science fiction by Peter Nicholls and John Clute, form a powerful meta-text to this, my favourite, genre of fiction and help negate some of the sneering commentary sometimes expressed by those whose only experience of science fiction is via Dr Who.

As is usual with these sorts of works, Professor Roberts has aligned his history with a thesis that science fiction is tied to rationality and partially mirrors the depth of "rationality" within society rather than "fantasy" works which have a more magical bent. This is an excellent device to use to string together this history and allows works from classical Greece and reformation-era Europe to be discussed without jarring intellectual leaps by the reader.

To the same end, Roberts breaks sci-fi into tightly defined classifications, in particular a chapter devoted to the works of Verne and Wells, which progresses the narrative rapidly and makes the work much more accessible to the reader, giving sensible start and stop points for casual interaction and easy reference.

All in all this is an excellent work and I have only one criticism to make, in such a work there will inevitably be omissions but the lack of any mention of Cordwainer Smith (one pseudonym of Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger ) who was, well to my mind, one of the most important and influential sci-fi authors of the 20th century whose stories demonstrate such a highly developed moral centre and whose prose is as good as any other author of the last 200 years, to be baffling in the extreme.