The Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories - Softcover

Tom Shippey

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0192831674 ISBN 13: 9780192831675

Publisher: Oxford, 1993

Synopsis

Science fiction is one of the 20th century's most characteristic - and dominant - literary forms. Despite critical disparagement and misunderstanding, it has millions of readers worldwide and has established itself at the heart of popular literary culture. This selection starts with H.G. Wells' "The Land Ironclads", and charts the development of science fiction this century through a wide range of practitioners - Rudyard Kipling, Arthur C. Clarke, Frederik Pohl, Brian Aldiss, Ursula Le Guin, J.G. Ballard, Paul McAuley, David Brin and many others. The 30 stories offer a potent blend of favourites and surprises, tracing the thematic and technical development of SF over the last 90 years.

About this title

About the Author

Tom Shippey inherited J. R. R. Tolkien's Chair of Medieval English Language at the University of Leeds, and now holds the Walter J. Ong Chair of Humanities at St Louis University, Missouri, specializing in Medieval Literature, Old English Arthurian and Romance Literature, Fantasy, and Science Fiction. He has written and edited numerous books, including J. R. R. Tolkien: Author of the Century (2001).

From Publishers Weekly

These 30 SF tales, arranged chronologically from 1903 to 1990, cover a typically wide and uneven range in the genre. The omission of some authors might raise eyebrows--notably Isaac Asimov, Harlan Ellison, and Robert A. Heinlein, all known for their short fiction. Only three women are represented: C. L. Moore (whose The Piper's Son is written under the collaborative pseudonym Lewis Padgett), Ursula K. Le Guin and Racoona Sheldon (Alice Sheldon, better known under the James Tiptree Jr. pseudonym). Only Sheldon's The Screwfly Solution, a devastatingly scary story about misogyny gone mad, dates from the past 20 years, during which women have made serious progress in the genre; thus, the final third of the book is less representative than it might be. Standouts include Le Guin's 0. Henry-esque The Dowry of the Angyar, Gene Wolfe's frightening How the Whip Came Back, H. G. Wells's anticipation of modern weapons in The Land Ironclads, Thomas M. Disch's insightful Problems of Creativeness, George R.R. Martin's fascinating religious study The Way of Cross and Dragon and Frederik Pohl's The Tunnel Under the World, which opens with the now-classic line, On the morning of June 15th, Guy Burckhardt woke up screaming out of a dream.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0192831674
• ISBN 13: 9780192831675
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1