The language of the night
edited and with introductions by Susan Wood
A collection of twenty-four essays concerned with writing in general, the field of fantasy and science fiction, and with the author's own writing.

by Martin Willis (2006)
"Using key canonical science fiction narratives, Mesmerists, Monsters, and Machines examines the intersection of the literary and scientific cultures of the nineteenth century. In this approach to the study of early science fiction, author Martin Willis maintains that science fiction was just as important in defining the culture of the nineteenth century as other critics maintain it was in shaping the twentieth century." "Mesmerists, Monsters, and Machines interrogates the cultural implications of scientific development as articulated, challenged, and reformulated by science fiction. Each chapter demonstrates that both science and fiction were vital parts of a culture of imaginative and empirical practices that were continually reacting to, arguing with, and influencing one another throughout the nineteenth century. In a narrative that cites classic science fiction texts, Willis establishes a timeline for the reader so that the cultural significance of science fiction is understood and its complexity and relevance to the nineteenth century is demonstrated." "Those interested in nineteenth-century history and literature, cultural studies, the history of science, and science fiction will welcome this addition to the scholarship."--Jacket.
edited and with introductions by Susan Wood
A collection of twenty-four essays concerned with writing in general, the field of fantasy and science fiction, and with the author's own writing.
Lester de Rey
Despite its limiting title, Lester Del Rey's 'The World of Science Fiction: 1926-1976, The History of a Subculture' gives a pretty detailed history of at least the magazine driven side of the genre from the late nineteenth century to 1976. Although it was intended to be a general history, Del Rey spends the bulk of the book detailing the impact of the magazines and their publishers on the markets, and mentioning the major stories from each era. Del Rey's thesis is that during the first fifty years of its history the genre moved in twelve-year cycles--after every twelve years someone filled with new ideas about how to manage a publication would come along and bring their ideas into the world, and thereby transform the genre. Del Rey supports his thesis adequately with anecdotal evidence, puts forth opinions on the impact of fannish activities on the development of the genre, and gives an excellent recitation of the development of the hardcover fiction markets, which really did not start in the United States until the 1950's.
Christopher Palmer
"Philip K. Dick: Exhilaration and Terror of the Postmodern examines a wide range of Dick's work, including his short stories and posthumously published realist novels. Christopher Palmer analyses the puzzling and dazzling effects of Dick's fiction, and argues that at its heart is a clash between exhilarating possibilities of transformation, and a frightening lack of ethical certainties. Dick's work is seen as the inscription of his own historical predicament, the clash between humanism and postmodernism being played out in the complex forms of the fiction. The problem is never resolved, but Dick's ways of imagining it become steadily more ingenious and challenging."--BOOK JACKET.
John Scheckter
This volume introduces the reader to a powerful and rewarding territory: the Australian novel. Both drawing from and rebelling against the power of Europe, Australian writers asserted from the beginning that experience "down under" demands thorough observation and thoughtful expression. Exploration of the vast land, framed by the horrors of penal establishment and challenged by encounters with Aboriginal cultures, produced novels of irony and expectation, cynicism and celebration - works that demonstrate the flexibility and unflinching clarity that remain characteristically Australian down to the postcolonial present.