Discovering Jewish Science Fiction: A Look at the Jewish Influences in Star Trek, Star Wars, Doctor Who, DC, Marvel, and so Many More…

by Valerie Estelle Frankel

So many of the biggest science fiction franchises have Jewish content and creators. Star Trek, Star Wars, Babylon 5, Doctor Who, and nearly every superhero, from Captain America and Superman to the X-Men and Avengers, tell Jewish stories of marginalization and prejudice. This is no surprise as the comic book and science fiction industries were both started by Jews in the 1930s. Today, more creators are building on these works, fashioning Jewish space opera, Jewish aliens, and of course Jewish scifi humor. More award-winning creators are using other stories to explore deep questions of philosophy and religious practice. We’ll tour all these works, discovering the best that Jewish science fiction has to offer.

Kindle Edition

Published August 7, 2022

About the author

Valerie Estelle Frankel is the author of 88 books on pop culture, including Doctor Who - The What, Where, and How; The Villain's Journey, History, Pop Culture, and Hidden Meanings in Hamilton; and How Game of Thrones Will End. Many of her books focus on women’s roles in fiction, from her heroine’s journey guides From Girl to Goddess and Superheroines and the Epic Journey to books like Star Wars Meets the Eras of Feminism and Fourth Wave Feminism in Science Fiction and Fantasy. She's editing a series on Jewish Science Fiction for Rowman & Littlefield. Once a lecturer at San Jose State University, she now teaches at Mission College and is a frequent speaker at conferences. Come explore her research at www.vefrankel.com.

Reviews

[Daniel A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I met Valerie Estelle Frankel at WorldCon in Chicago in September 2022, along with a great many other authors and artists of whom I've been a fan for many years. WorldCon is traditionally a place where SF/F/H authors go to promote their upcoming works, not to mention socialize with their peers; Discovering Jewish Science Fiction: A Look at the Jewish Influences in Star Trek, Star Wars, Doctor Who, DC, Marvel, and so Many More… is an abridged, self-published edition of an upcoming, larger academic work that Frankel will be releasing soon, and which she promoted at a panel on Jewish Influences on Science Fiction.

Discovering Jewish Science Fiction is nothing if not thorough, even exhaustive; Frankel leaves virtually no SFnal stone unturned in the not insignificant overlap between Judaica and SF/F/H, from comic books to Israeli SF/F/H to the history of fandom to the big tentpole SF/F/H franchises with which we're all familiar. The book suffers ever so slightly from being self-published, in terms of editing and citations—but that's nothing that the final version can't correct; the book's bibliography is as thorough as the contents, although it suffers the same slight editing and citation errors as the main text. But the contents of the book—the meat of the "narrative", as it were—are top-notch, fully researched, and eminently entertaining, with a plethora of new things to read, for many, many weeks on end. Frankel is an expert in her field, and I most eagerly anticipate the release of the full version of this book.