Alternate Worlds: The Illustrated History of Science Fiction, 3d ed.

by James Gunn

Overview

Alternate Worlds was first published in 1975 and became an instant classic, winning a Hugo award. This third edition brings the history of science fiction up to date, covering developments over the past forty years--a period that has seen the advent of technologies only imagined in the genre's Golden Age.

As a literature of change, science fiction has become ever more meaningful, presaging dangers to humanity and, as Alvin Toffler wrote, guarding against "the premature arrival of the future." The world has begun to recognize science fiction in many different ways, incorporating its elements in products, visual media and huge conventions.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781476633329
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers
Publication date:	08/03/2018
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	1,042,156
File size:	46 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

The late James Gunn was emeritus professor of English at the University of Kansas and the author or editor of 45 books and 100+ short stories. A former president of both the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and the Science Fiction Research Association, he received their lifetime awards and induction into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame. He lived in Lawrence, Kansas.
The late James Gunn was emeritus professor of English at the University of Kansas and the author or editor of 45 books and 100+ short stories. A former president of both the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and the Science Fiction Research Association, he received their lifetime awards and induction into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame. He lived in Lawrence, Kansas.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Preface
Science Fiction, I Love You (Isaac Asimov)
 1. The Shape of the Present
 2. In the Beginning
 3. Toward Verne: 1800–1885
Between pages 50 and 51 are 8 color plates with 16 photographs
 4. A Victorian Engineer: 1828–1905
 5. The Birth of the Mass Magazines: 1885–1911
 6. Prophet of Progress: 1866–1946
 7. The Rise of the Pulps: 1911–1926
 8. That Amazing Decade: 1926–1936
 9. The Expanding Universe: 1930–1940
Between pages 144 and 145 are 16 color plates with 46 photographs
10. The Astounding Editor: 1938–1950
11. The Big Boom: 1940–1955
12. Alternate Worlds: 1949–1965
13. The Shape of Things to Come
14. The Shape of Things That Came: 1975–2016
Appendix 1: Science Fiction Themes
Appendix 2: A Basic Science Fiction Libary
Appendix 3: A Short History of Western Civilization,
Science, Technology and Science Fiction
Index

Editorial Reviews

Excellent”—ARBA; “Comprehensive, neatly balanced and lavishly illustrated...SF fans may never have had so thorough a tribute to their genre.”—Publishers Weekly; “An excellent, an intelligent, comprehensive, and above all objective history...a minor miracle”—Science Fiction Review; “The hundreds of photos of science fiction writers and the equally large number of reproductions of covers from the pulp magazines make it a treasure.”—Jackson Sun; “Gunn gives the history of sf according to Verne, Wells and Campbell. And he does so brilliantly, in a study that will long remain the voice for the so-called ‘hard concept of sf.’”—Extrapolation.

From the Publisher