The Science Fiction Handbook

M. Keith Booker is the James E. and Ellen Wadley Roper Professor of English and Director of the Program in Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies at the University of Arkansas. He is the author of more than 30 books on literature, popular culture, and cultural theory. Anne-Marie Thomas is Associate Professor of English at Austin Community College. She teaches literature and composition, including science fiction classes for the college’s Honors Program.

Part I: Introduction.
Science Fiction in Western Culture.
Part II: Brief Historical Surveys of Science Fiction Subgenres.
The Time-Travel Invasion.
The Alien Invasion Narrative.
The Space Opera.
Apocalyptic and Post-Disaster Narratives.
Dystopian Science Fiction.
Utopian Fiction.
Feminism, Science Fiction, and Gender.
Science Fiction and Satire.
Cyberpunk and Posthuman Science Fiction.
Multicultural Science Fiction.
Part III: Representative Science Fiction Authors.
Isaac Asimov (1920–1992).
Margaret Atwood (1939–).
Octavia Butler (1947–2006).
Samuel R. Delany (1942–).
Philip K. Dick (1928–1982).
William Gibson (1948–).
Nicola Griffith (1960–).
Joe Haldeman (1943–).
Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988).
Nalo Hopkinson (1960–).
Ursula K. Le Guin (1929–).
Ian McDonald (1960–).
China Miéville (1972–).
George Orwell (1903–1950).
Marge Piercy (1936–).
Frederik Pohl (1919–).
Kim Stanley Robinson (1952–).
Neal Stephenson (1959–).
H. G. Wells (1866–1946).
Part IV: Discussions of Individual Texts.
H. G. Wells, The Time Machine (1895).
H. G. Wells, The War of the Worlds (1898).
George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949).
Isaac Asimov, I, Robot (1950).
Frederik Pohl and C. M. Kormbluth, The Space Merchants (1952).
Robert A. Heinlein, Starship Troopers (1959).
Philip K. Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968).
Ursula K. Le Guin, The Dispossessed (1974).
Joe Haldeman, The Forever War (1974).
Marge Piercy, Woman on the Edge of Time (1976).
Samuel R. Delany, Trouble on Triton (1976).
William Gibson, Neuromancer (1984).
Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale (1985).
Octavia Butler, “Xenogenesis” trilogy (1987–1989).
Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash (1992).
Nicola Griffith, Ammonite (1994).
Kim Stanley Robinson, “Mars” trilogy (1992–1996).
Nalo Hopkinson, Midnight Robber (2000).
China Miéville, Perdido Street Station (2000).
Ian McDonald, River of Gods (2005).
Glossary.
Selected Bibliography.
Index.