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.

Table of Contents

Preface Definitions Science Fiction and the Ancient Novel Interlude: AD400 - AD1600 Seventeenth-Century Science Fiction Eighteenth-Century Science Fiction Early Nineteenth-Century Science Fiction Science Fiction 1850 - 1900 Jules Verne and H.G. Wells The Early Twentieth-Century: High Modernist Science Fiction Golden Age Science Fiction: 1940-1960 The Impact of New Wave Science Fiction: 1960s - 1970s Science Fiction Screen Media 1960s - 2000: Hollywood Cinema and TV Prose Science Fiction: 1970s - 1990s Late Twentieth Century SF: Multimedia, Visual Science Fiction and Others Postscript: Twenty-First-Century Science Fiction Chronology of Key Titles in Science Fiction and Developments in Science Notes Further Reading Index

About the Author

ADAM ROBERTS has two careers. In one he is Professor of Nineteenth-Century Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London, UK, and has published a wide range of academic books and articles, including Science Fiction (2000). In the other he is a writer of science fiction novels, amongst them Salt (2000), On (2000), Stone (2000), Polystom (2000), The Snow (2000) and Gradisil (2006). His most recent novels are Splinter (2007) and Land of the Headless (2007).

Reviews

Choice Outstanding Academic Title 2006 'As a professor of 19th-century literature as well as a prolific science fiction writer, Roberts is eminently qualified to write a history of the genre. This impressive tome is ambitious in its scope, tracing SF's origins back to the fantastic voyages of the ancient Greek novel - the original Vernean voyages extraordinaires.' - The Guardian 'Adam Roberts' 'History' is the most significant history of the genre since The Trillion Year Spree by Brian Aldiss and David Wingrove, published nearly two decades ago, and demonstrates the most original thinking about science fiction since Kingsley Amis's New Maps of Hell more than forty years ago. This isn't merely an excellent historical survey but a narrative, showing compellingly how modern science fiction has roots in the fantastic-voyage tales of antiquity, and has been shaped by a dialectic between magic and materialism that dates back to the Reformation...Adam Roberts is already a proven author of high-quality science fiction. With 'History' he establishes himself as the most important critical voice in modern science fiction studies.' - Stephen Baxter, Current Vice President, The British Science Fiction Association and Author of Timelike Infinity and Voyage '[A] refreshingly irreverent attempt to look at science fiction without blinkers.' - Strange Horizons 'The History of Science Fiction is a necessary and important book. It will get people talking, discussing and - dare I say it? - arguing about all manner of things relevant to science fiction, its history and its future.' - Green Man Review '...the lasting impressions left by this History of Science Fiction are of the author's eye for detail, his understanding of the pervasiveness of the science fiction in contemporary culture, and his astonishing critical energy.' - Patrick Parrinder, The British Society for Literature and Science