Science Fiction: A Very Short Introduction

This outstanding brief introduction to science fiction (henceforth, SF) fills a real need for a short survey of the subject. There are many other excellent surveys of SF. I have in my library a number of very fine books on SF, all of which complement one another by looking at the subject from slightly different angles, including Brian Aldiss's  Trillion Year Spree: The History of Science Fiction , Darko Suvin's  Metamorphoses of Science Fiction , Adam Roberts's  The History of Science Fiction (Palgrave Histories of Literature) , Thomas M. Disch's  The DREAMS OUR STUFF IS MADE OF: How Science Fiction Conquered the World , and Edward James and Farah Menlesohn's  The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction (Cambridge Companions to Literature) , and a much older but classic survey,  New Maps of Hell . I also should mention Vivian Sobchack's  Screening Space: The American Science Fiction Film , which provides the best overview of the SF film. No two of these surveys agrees completely with another, and none entirely contradicts another.Seed's book is arranged around a few themes: space travel, alien encounters, technology, utopias/dystopias, time travel, and the field of science fiction studies. The book also contains, as most of the Very Short Introductions do, an excellent bibliography.While most of the books I referenced above focus exclusively on SF books - or with the case of Sobchack's book, film - Seed focuses on both. He will write about THE FOREVER WAR on one page and Fritz Lang's METROPOLIS a couple of pages later. And I think this is appropriate. Today the various media cross pollinate that keeping them apart is a tad artificial. My only complaint is Seed largely omitting television SF from his book. Granted he had only a small number of pages to work with, but in the past twenty-five years some of the best SF has come from TV in shows like BATTLESTAR GALACTICA and some of the STAR TREK series, not to mention SF lite like THE X-FILES.Still, I strongly recommend this for anyone who wants to get an excellent take on the history of SF. I do not recommend that anyone wanting to know more about the field read only one or even two book. There are many ways of looking at the subject and each brings something different to the table.

This is an excellent overview and introduction to print and film science fiction. The emphasis is on Anglo-American science fiction but also considers widely translated authors such as Stanislaw Lem and Jules Verne. The author shows that ideas, plots, and themes of science fiction go much further back in history than most people think. The author also considers a wider range of books from the past that would be considered as science fiction if they were written today such as _The Purple Cloud_. Toward the end of the book there is a discussion of black and women science fiction writers who generally are not well covered in traditional discussions of science fiction. The book also discusses the peculiar sub-culture of science fiction fandom with it's clubs, magazines, and conventions.

Well organised, terse overview of English Sci-fi seminal works and their study in Academia, but given its intentional brevity, it lacks the detail of more in-depth studies and leaves readers wanting more. This isn't a bad thing, if you are just wanting to get a general understanding of the genre. The Cambridge companion to Science Fiction is a good further read and covers many more topics/themes in more depth. Vivian Sobchak' screening science fiction is another good place to follow up on the American Sci-fi film.

As a fan and teacher of Science Fiction, this is the best book to introduce my students to the field of SF. David Seed is an informative and clear writer who effortlessly gives the reader a wealth of knowledge without being boring. In less than 150 pages, Seed's A Very Short Introduction does what it is meant to do and more. It allows my students, many of whom are SF fans, to realize that they do not know as much as they thought they did. For those new to SF, Seed's knowledge, easy writing style and references to further reading and viewing convince the novices that this is a field worth exploring.

This is a brief discussion of recent academic criticism of Science Fiction (both literature and movies). Though the author promises to avoid a historical approach, devoting chapters to themes rather than periods, each chapter turns out to be a small history. This leads to a sense of repetition. Within each chapter the author surveys a variety of critical approaches, citing many examples from Science Fiction books and film, without devoting much attention to any one of them. Though there is a faint Marxist undertone to the book, still, as in many Oxford Very Short Introductions, the appropriate genuflections are made in the directions of all popular critical coteries. In short, this book doesn't say much of interest to the Science Fiction fan, but gets lost in an academic echo chamber. Recommended for undergraduates in literature looking for a compendium of quick references.

I enjoyed this more than I thought I would. Also, found some new books for my reading list from many of the books the author referenced.

This is a very wonderful introduction to the different themes in the genre. If you are looking for a general reference point on the different themes, and how each theme has changed/evolved, then I would recommend this book. Seed does a nice job of explaining deeper themes, and gives plenty of references to works throughout. This is a great read for anyone.

I liked the discussion of 19tth and early 29th Century works.

Its rare to find refererral material on science fiction under one roof. though its never possible to cover all the ages and writers, this book atleast fills the void. recommended for the SF afficionados.

By buying a book, one has to read the title and understand it. I didn't realize the title was literal. That was my mistake. One of the times you ask yourself why such a book was published.The bookstore was good, the book came quick and as described.

In good condition although large library sticker on the front of the book which can't be taken off without damaging it.