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Toys in the Age of Wonder: Science Fiction, Society and the Symbolism of Play by Mark Rich (2020)

As it happened so often before, fiction by authors of early wonder and adventure tales, such as H. G. Wells, Jules Verne, Edgar Allan Poe, William Rice Burroughs, and others, provided man (and particularly children and youngsters) with hopes and fantasies about machines that featured technology not yet been invented to dream a while. As […]

The Rise and Fall of American Science Fiction, from the 1920s to the 1960s by Gary Westfahl (2019)

Even though a title such as “The Rise and Fall” usually has readers prepared for a large, heavy volume that will provide audiences with loads of information amassed in a mostly boring manner, Westfahl’s book differs from that stereotype. In fact, the four major parts (and a short epilogue) read very much like a collection […]

Steaming Into a Victorian Future by Julie Anne Taddeo and Cynthia J. Miller (eds.) (2014)

After all, Steampunk as a genre of literature, fashion, film or even music is a truly young being, hardly older than 30 years, if we consider William Gibson’s and Bruce Sterling’s novel The Difference Engine (1990) as one of the very earliest works of fiction now considered part of the movement and probably its kick […]