Given that science fiction, in its many forms and genres, engages in sometimes serious speculation about science, history, and all types of social relations, and that its recurrent themes—such as the concept of the alien, alternative identities, and the role of technology—chime with so many contemporary anxieties and concerns, it is perhaps no surprise that as early as 1960 Kingsley Amis was able to remark (in his New Maps of Hell) that ‘to read, and to study, science fiction are valid and interesting pursuits from any old point of view, whether literary, sociological, psychological, political, or what you will’.

Now, as serious academic work on science fiction continues to blossom, this new four-volume collection from Routledge meets the need for an authoritative anthology to enable users to make better sense of the subject’s unwieldy body of scholarship, and the continuing explosion in research output.

The four volumes have been expertly edited by Andy Sawyer of Liverpool University, home of Europe’s largest catalogued collection of SF material. Science Fiction is fully indexed and has a comprehensive introduction, newly written by the editor. It is an essential work of reference and will be valued by scholars and students as a vital one-stop resource.