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Frankenstein, The Time Machine, Star Trek, Dune, 1984, Blade Runner--science fiction has been explained as a combination of romance, science, and prophecy; as a genre based on an imagined alternative to the reader's environment; and as a form of fantastic fiction and historical literature. It has also been argued that science fiction narratives are the most engaged, socially relevant, and responsive to the modern technological environment. In this Very Short Introduction, David Seed doesn't offer a history of science fiction, but instead attempts to tie examples of science fiction to different historical moments, in order to demonstrate how science fiction has evolved over time, especially the emergence of science fiction as a popular genre in the 20th century. Seed looks not only at literature, but also at drama and poetry, as well as film. Examining recurrent themes in science fiction, he looks at voyages into space, the concept of the alien and alternative social identities, the role of technology in science fiction, and its relation to time--in the past, present, and future.

The essays in this book focus particularly on how early SF engages with such contemporary issues as exploration, the development of science and social planning. Although written by academics, this book is cast in an accessible style, avoiding the use of theoretical jargon.

Contents:

• "Able Mechanick": The Life and Adventures of Peter Wilkins and the Eighteenth-Century Fantastic Voyage - (1995) - essay by Paul Baines
• Science Fiction by Gaslight: An Introduction of English-Language Science Fiction in the Nineteenth Century - (1995) - essay by Edward James
• Frankenstein and the Origins of Science Fiction - (1995) - essay by Brian Stableford
• From Mary Shelley to The War of the Worlds: The Thames Valley Catastrophe - (1995) - essay by Patrick Parrinder
• Breaking the Bounds: The Rhetoric of Limits in the Works of Edgar Allan Poe, His Contemporaries and Adaptors - (1995) - essay by David Seed
• Verne's Amazing Journeys - (1987) - essay by M. Hammerton
• Imagining the Future: Predictive Fiction in the Nineteenth Century - (1995) - essay by Brian Nellist
• Imagination and Inversion in Nineteenth-Century Utopian Writing - (1995) - essay by Simon Denith
• Prediction, Programme and Fantasy in Jack London's "The Iron Heel" - (1995) - essay by Tony Barley
• Alien Dreams: Kipling - (1995) - essay by Stephen R. L. Clark
• Lesbians and Virgins: The New Motherhood in Herland - (1995) - essay by Val Gough

The subject of this timely book is that body of fiction which speculates in narrative form about the nature of wars likely to break out in the near or distant future. Although earlier instances occur, the origins of this mode lie primarily in the late nineteenth century but writing about future wars continues to this day with notable fiction on the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Ranging widely across periods and conflicts real and imagined, and boasting contributions from the late I. F. Clarke, H. Bruce Franklin and Patrick Parrinder, Future Wars explores the fascinating process of interaction between politics and literature, science fiction and war in a range of classic texts. Individual essays explore Reagan's 'star wars' project, nuclear fiction, Martian invasion, and the Pax Americana among other topics. The use of future war scenarios in military planning dates back to the nineteenth century. Future Wars concludes with an assessment by an officer in the U.S. Army of the continuing usefulness of future wars fiction.

This wide-ranging volume explores the various dialogues that flourish between different aspects of science fiction: academics and fans, writers and readers; ideological stances and national styles; different interpretations of the genre; and how language and 'voices' are used in constructing SF. Introduced by the acclaimed novelist Brian W. Aldiss, the essays range from studies of writers such as Robert A. Heinlein, who are considered as the "heart" of the genre, to more contemporary writers such as Jack Womack and J. G. Ballard.

Contents:

• 1 - Introduction (Speaking Science Fiction) - essay by Brian W. Aldiss
• 5 - Who Speaks Science Fiction? - essay by Andy Sawyer
• 11 - Science Fiction Dialogues - essay by David Seed
• 21 - Speaking of HomePlace, Speaking from SomePlace - essay by Candas Jane Dorsey
• 32 - Speaking Science Fiction - Out of Anxiety? - essay by Josef Nesvadba
• 40 - Science Fiction as Language: Postmodernism and Mainstream: Some Reflections - essay by José Manuel Mota
• 52 - 'Fantastic Dialogues': Critical Stories about Feminism and Science Fiction - essay by Helen Merrick
• 69 - Vicissitudes of the Voice, Speaking Science Fiction - essay by Roger Luckhurst
• 82 - 'A Language of the Future': Discursive Constructions of the Subject in A Clockwork Orange and Random Acts of Senseless Violence - essay by Veronica Hollinger
• 96 - Speaking the Body: The Embodiment of 'Feminist' Cyberpunk - essay by Bronwen Calvert and Sue Walsh
• 109 - Bodies that Speak Science Fiction: Stelarc - Performance Artist 'Becoming Posthuman' - essay by Ross Farnell
• 131 - Science Fiction and the Gender of Knowledge - essay by Brian Attebery
• 144 - Corporatism and the Corporate Ethos in Robert Heinlein's 'The Roads Must Roll' - essay by Farah Mendlesohn
• 158 - Convention and Displacement: Narrator, Narratee, and Virtual Reader in Science Fiction - essay by George E. Slusser and Danièle Chatelain [as by Danièle Chatelain and George Slusser ]
• 179 - Aphasia and Mother Tongue: Themes of Language Creation and Silence in Women's Science Fiction - essay by Nickianne Moody
• 188 - 'My Particular Virus': (Re-)Reading Jack Womack's Dryco Chronicles - essay by Andrew M. Butler
• 201 - Aliens in the Fourth Dimension - (1996) - essay by Gwyneth Jones
• 216 - Freefall in Inner Space: From Crash to Crash Technology - Simon Sellars - shortfiction by Simon Sellars

As much as any individual, Ray Bradbury brought science fiction's ideas into the mainstream. Yet he transcended the genre in both form and popularity, using its trappings to explore timely social concerns and the kaleidoscope of human experience while in the process becoming one of America's most beloved authors.

David Seed follows Bradbury's long career from the early short story masterpieces through his work in a wide variety of broadcast and film genres to the influential cultural commentary he spread via essays, speeches, and interviews. Mining Bradbury's classics and hard-to-find archival, literary, and cultural materials, Seed analyzes how the author's views on technology, authoritarianism, and censorship affected his art; how his Midwest of dream and dread brought his work to life; and the ways film and television influenced his creative process and visually-oriented prose style. The result is a passionate statement on Bradbury's status as an essential literary writer deserving of a place in the cultural history of his time.