Science Fiction

A compelling, fully illustrated account of the worldwide phenomenon of science fiction as depicted in film, literature, and art, and the scientific advances and imagination behind it. Drawing on a wide range of examples from the literary and visual canons (short stories, novels, films, television shows, video games, graphic novels, works of art and more, in both cult and popular culture), this lavishly illustrated book examines how science fiction has provided a human response to science, exploring every reaction from complacency to euphoria, and from hope to terror. In five chapters, this volume surveys the role played by science fiction in exploring our world and a multitude of ideas about our relationship to the human condition. It covers a fascinating range of topics: machines, travel, aliens (the Other), communication, threats and anxiety. Featuring a variety 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. Ultimately, science fiction asks what makes us human, and what lies ahead to test, threaten, and even destroy humanity. This publication has these questions at its core, making it especially relevant for a contemporary read in an age preoccupied by the climate emergency, the coronavirus pandemic, the development of nuclear missiles and military technologies, and other global challenges.