An exciting, argumentative and invaluable overview of the most interesting literature out there. Roger Luckhurst does an excellent job of embedding SF in history. China Mieville, author of Perdido Street Station and Iron Council This is a well-conceived, impressively researched and eloquently argued study of Anglo-American science fiction. Combining a sweeping command of cultural-historical contexts with incisive close readings of individual texts, Roger Luckhurst illuminates over a century's worth of print and mass-media SF. Whether discussing popular concerns about the pervasive power of Mechanism in the nineteenth century or avant-gardist critiques of the media-saturated Society of the Spectacle in the 1960s, Luckhurst's consistent emphasis on how SF registers the impact of techno-scientific change gives his study a remarkable coherence. In sum, this is an essential and timely volume Rob Latham, University of Iowa This is a refreshing and lively survey of a very broad field. It usefully situates science fiction in its relevant cultural context and makes a valuable contribution to the history of the genre. David Seed, Liverpool University
