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Science Fiction Criticism: An Anthology of Essential Writings
Including more than 30 essential works of science fiction criticism in a single volume, this is a comprehensive introduction to the study of this enduringly popular genre. Science Fiction An Anthology of Essential Writings covers such topics ·Definitions and boundaries of the genre ·The many forms of science fiction, from time travel to ‘inner space’ ·Ideology and from utopian fantasy to feminist, queer and environmental readings ·The androids, aliens, cyborgs and animals ·Race and the legacy of colonialism The volume also features annotated guides to further reading on these topics. Includes writings Marc Angenot, J.G. Ballard, Damien Broderick, Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, Samuel R. Delany, Philip K. Dick, Grace Dillon, Kodwo Eshun, Carl Freedman, Allison de Fren, Hugo Gernsback, Donna Haraway, N. Katherine Hayles, Robert A. Heinlein, Nalo Hopkinson, Veronica Hollinger, Fredric Jameson, Gwyneth Jones, Rob Latham, Roger Luckhurst, Judith Merril, John B. Michel, Wendy Pearson, John Rieder, Lysa Rivera, Joanna Russ, Mary Shelley, Stephen Hong Sohn, Susan Sontag, Bruce Sterling, Darko Suvin, Vernor Vinge, Sherryl Vint, H.G. Wells, David Wittenberg and Lisa Yaszek
582 pages, Paperback
First published February 23, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
September 18, 2023
Okay, if you want a comprehensive, representative selection of some of the most important SF criticism to date, then this book is a no brainer. Indeed, any student or dedicated fan will be familiar with a lot of the articles and writers mentioned here.
Rob Latham states in his Introduction that 14 are by SF author, editors, and fans, and 21 by academic scholars. “The trajectory of coverage is designed to reflect the growth of SF studies as a discipline,” explains Latham, from early formalist perspectives to more modern approaches to SF as a way of reading.
Critical methodologies include structuralism, feminism, Marxist and queer theory, and critical race studies. I have a special interest in decoloniality and Global South speculative fiction, so ‘Science fiction and empire’ by Istvan Csisery-Ronay is a wonderful introduction to this incisive Science Fiction Studies editor and critic.
The book is divided into five sections: ‘Definitions and Boundaries’, Structure and Form’, ‘Ideology and Worldview’, ‘The Non-Human’, and ‘Race and the Legacy of Colonialism’. The selections in each section are organised chronologically so as to outline the central critical trends and show them in dialogue.
Unfortunately, and this does seem rather puzzling, none of the essays have their original publication dates listed, not even in the Contributors’ section. Maybe this is peculiar to the ebook, but it is a rather glaring omission, especially if you are sourcing material for research purposes. Latham does include a link to the ‘Chronological Bibliography of SF History, Theory, and Criticism’ at the Science Fiction Studies website.
Each section has a detailed recommended reading section at the end. This is not the sort of book you read cover to cover in one go – not for me, anyway – but one you dip into every now and again to reread a memorable article, to fact check, or simply to browse the incredible cornucopia of SF criticism. An essential collection for any serious SF fan or researcher.
Rob Latham states in his Introduction that 14 are by SF author, editors, and fans, and 21 by academic scholars. “The trajectory of coverage is designed to reflect the growth of SF studies as a discipline,” explains Latham, from early formalist perspectives to more modern approaches to SF as a way of reading.
Critical methodologies include structuralism, feminism, Marxist and queer theory, and critical race studies. I have a special interest in decoloniality and Global South speculative fiction, so ‘Science fiction and empire’ by Istvan Csisery-Ronay is a wonderful introduction to this incisive Science Fiction Studies editor and critic.
The book is divided into five sections: ‘Definitions and Boundaries’, Structure and Form’, ‘Ideology and Worldview’, ‘The Non-Human’, and ‘Race and the Legacy of Colonialism’. The selections in each section are organised chronologically so as to outline the central critical trends and show them in dialogue.
Unfortunately, and this does seem rather puzzling, none of the essays have their original publication dates listed, not even in the Contributors’ section. Maybe this is peculiar to the ebook, but it is a rather glaring omission, especially if you are sourcing material for research purposes. Latham does include a link to the ‘Chronological Bibliography of SF History, Theory, and Criticism’ at the Science Fiction Studies website.
Each section has a detailed recommended reading section at the end. This is not the sort of book you read cover to cover in one go – not for me, anyway – but one you dip into every now and again to reread a memorable article, to fact check, or simply to browse the incredible cornucopia of SF criticism. An essential collection for any serious SF fan or researcher.
May 31, 2022
Science Fiction might be my favourite genre, as it allows for so much creativity. It can be thought provoking as well as crazy, stimulating as well as mind-numbing. And it's an important genre as well, as it can challenge our present and question our future.
Science Fiction Criticism is a collection of thirty-six essays that challenge all of these beliefs. It's a carefully curated selection of pondering on the definition and boundaries of the genre, the ideologies and the role of the nonhuman as well as a try to put it in context with race and the legacy and colonialism.
I was very excited and pleased by the selection of authors presented. We meet some of the genre's popular superstars such as H.G. Wells, Philip K. Dick, Robert A. Heinlein and Mary Shelley and encounter more scientific analysis provided by a variety of professors and commentators. This is probably fun to dive in and out of, but I had an equally good time reading it front to back, as the essays are assembled in a logical order that makes the whole thing feel like a conversation.
There are some slight drawbacks in regards to the editing, still. I personally found it hard to disregard the typos that make a surprisingly frequent appearance and the publishers also chose to not actually state what year the essays in question were published. Most of the times, you sort of knew by reading them, but I personally think that it would help a lot to know from the beginning what era to relate them to.
In terms of themes, there were a lot of interesting claims and ideas. We get Heinlein complain about how he hates that a lot of science fiction just doesn't care about science, which he considers essential to create a believable story. We get to listen to Wittenberg ponder about the importance and the implications of time travel as part of a narrative and we get to hear Russ make the claim that there just aren't enough women in science fiction.
There were some theories that I would have liked a bit more back-up on. There's an essay by Carl Freedman called "Third World" for example, in which he proposes that countries often referred to as Third World countries don't have work explicitly in the SciFi tradition, “because the Third World has no need of SciFi”, as the First World to them must already seem as “radically different and estranging as the imagined planets and futures of SF seem to readers in the West”. Nonetheless, I never thought about how the countries with the most rooted traditions in the genre are those with imperialistic histories, which at the least is something interesting to think about.
Overall, this was a stimulating and enjoyable ride through a lot of themes the Science Fiction genre has been preoccupied with and defined by. I would recommend it to people who are already familiar with key novels, as there's a lot of referring to other works and people and you definitely get more out of this if you know what the authors are talking about, but if you are, there's a lot of stuff for you to gather from this!
Science Fiction Criticism is a collection of thirty-six essays that challenge all of these beliefs. It's a carefully curated selection of pondering on the definition and boundaries of the genre, the ideologies and the role of the nonhuman as well as a try to put it in context with race and the legacy and colonialism.
I was very excited and pleased by the selection of authors presented. We meet some of the genre's popular superstars such as H.G. Wells, Philip K. Dick, Robert A. Heinlein and Mary Shelley and encounter more scientific analysis provided by a variety of professors and commentators. This is probably fun to dive in and out of, but I had an equally good time reading it front to back, as the essays are assembled in a logical order that makes the whole thing feel like a conversation.
There are some slight drawbacks in regards to the editing, still. I personally found it hard to disregard the typos that make a surprisingly frequent appearance and the publishers also chose to not actually state what year the essays in question were published. Most of the times, you sort of knew by reading them, but I personally think that it would help a lot to know from the beginning what era to relate them to.
In terms of themes, there were a lot of interesting claims and ideas. We get Heinlein complain about how he hates that a lot of science fiction just doesn't care about science, which he considers essential to create a believable story. We get to listen to Wittenberg ponder about the importance and the implications of time travel as part of a narrative and we get to hear Russ make the claim that there just aren't enough women in science fiction.
There were some theories that I would have liked a bit more back-up on. There's an essay by Carl Freedman called "Third World" for example, in which he proposes that countries often referred to as Third World countries don't have work explicitly in the SciFi tradition, “because the Third World has no need of SciFi”, as the First World to them must already seem as “radically different and estranging as the imagined planets and futures of SF seem to readers in the West”. Nonetheless, I never thought about how the countries with the most rooted traditions in the genre are those with imperialistic histories, which at the least is something interesting to think about.
Overall, this was a stimulating and enjoyable ride through a lot of themes the Science Fiction genre has been preoccupied with and defined by. I would recommend it to people who are already familiar with key novels, as there's a lot of referring to other works and people and you definitely get more out of this if you know what the authors are talking about, but if you are, there's a lot of stuff for you to gather from this!
June 30, 2024
Very useful collection of texts for a person looking to build a foundation in critical approaches to Science Fiction. I could see myself using this in a literature course sometime in the future.
July 30, 2017
Most of the pieces were well-chosen, but the book has two major problems. First, the pieces are presented ahistorically, which is to say none of the original publication data is provided, including the date; essays from last year rub shoulders with essays from the 1920s with no indication of how they are in conversation with each other or what their original context might have been. Second, the copy editing was extremely shoddy; several of the essays appear to have been OCR'd from their original sources and there are an embarrassing number of typos that seem to stem from things like word shape.
October 22, 2022
I really enjoyed the essays in this collection. They were stimulating and thought-provoking.
August 28, 2024
I checked this book out of my university's library and I immediately wanted to buy it! The amount of information and insight regarding writing science fiction has been instrumental in my own writing and enjoyment of science fiction.
June 23, 2017
I have read only some chapters and I keep the others for the moment I will read books about their topics, till now is a very interesting sum of essays and I am delighted that I bought it, even if it was really really expensive....
Ho letto solo i capitoli che mi interessavano e che soprattutto si riferivano a libri ed autori che conoscevo, mi tengo gli altri per il futuro, fino ad ora comunque, sono entusiasta di aver investito tutti questi soldi in questa raccolta di saggi....
Ho letto solo i capitoli che mi interessavano e che soprattutto si riferivano a libri ed autori che conoscevo, mi tengo gli altri per il futuro, fino ad ora comunque, sono entusiasta di aver investito tutti questi soldi in questa raccolta di saggi....
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews