Science Fiction

A compelling, fully illustrated account of the real science behind the worldwide phenomenon of science fiction as depicted in film, literature, and art.

Drawing on a wide range of examples from the literary and visual canons―short stories, novels, films, television programs, video games, graphic novels, artworks, and more―in both cult and popular culture, this extensively illustrated book examines how science fiction has provided a human response to science, exploring every reaction from complacency to exhilaration, and from hope to terror. Across five chapters, this volume reviews the role played by science fiction in exploring our world and a multitude of ideas about our relationship with the human condition. Science Fiction encompasses a fascinating range of themes: machines, travel, aliens (the Other), communication, threats, and anxiety. Edited by Glyn Morgan and featuring a range of essays by experts on the subject, as well as interviews with well-known science fiction authors and reproductions of classic ephemera, graphics, and objects throughout, it also focuses on the darker elements of this fascinating genre: the anxieties, fears, dystopias, monsters, and apocalypses that have populated science fiction from the beginning.