The Routledge Companion to Science Fiction

The Routledge Companion to Science Fiction is a comprehensive overview of the history and study of science fiction. It outlines major writers, movements, and texts in the genre, established critical approaches and areas for future study.
Fifty-six entries by a team of renowned international contributors are divided into four parts which look, in turn, at:


History - an integrated chronological narrative of the genre’s development


Theory - detailed accounts of major theoretical approaches including feminism, Marxism, psychoanalysis, cultural studies, postcolonialism, posthumanism and utopian studies


Issues and Challenges - anticipates future directions for study in areas as diverse as science studies, music, design, environmentalism, ethics and alterity


Subgenres - a prismatic view of the genre, tracing themes and developments within specific subgenres

Bringing into dialogue the many perspectives on the genre, The Routledge Companion to Science Fiction is essential reading for anyone interested in the history and the future of science fiction and the way it is taught and studied.

Mark Bould is Reader in Film and Literature at the University of the West of England. Co-editor of Science Fiction Film and Television, his books include Film Noir (2005), Parietal Games (2005) and The Cinema of John Sayles (2008), Neo-noir (2009) and Red Planets (2009).

Andrew M. Butler is Senior Lecturer in Media and Cultural Studies at Canterbury Christ Church University. The editor of An Unofficial Companion to the Novels of Terry Pratchett (2007) and Christopher Priest: The Interaction (2005), he has also written Pocket Essentials on Philip K. Dick (2000, 2007), Cyberpunk (2000), Terry Pratchett (2001), Film Studies (2002, 2005, 2008), and Postmodernism (2003). He co-edits Extrapolation.

Adam Roberts is Professor of Nineteenth-Century Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London, and the author of Science Fiction (2000) and The History of Science Fiction (2006). His most recent sf novels are Gradisil (2006), Land of the Headless (2007), Splinter (2007) and Swiftly (2008).

Sherryl Vint is Assistant Professor of English at Brock University. She is the author of Bodies of Tomorrow (2007) and is currently completing Animal Alterity: Science Fiction and the Question of the Animal. She co-edits Extrapolation, Science Fiction Film and Television, and Humanimalia.

Introduction Part 1: History Part 2: Theory Part 3: Issues and Challenges Part 4: Sub–enres