This book is a landmark work of literary studies. Science fiction, as the name implies, usually evokes an impression of a scientific aspect that is far removed from human nature, but this book suggests that this notion is not accurate. In particular, Chapter 3, which deals with dystopian fiction, addresses issues of human rights and discrimination against African Americans. This book offers a new perspective on the field of literary studies.

Yoriko Ishida, Oshima College

A timely and increasingly relevant study, Science Fiction and Anticipation: Utopias, Dystopias and Time Travel not only contributes significantly to what is a diverse and compelling field of research, but also delves into the SF genre’s metamorphoses in our COVID-19 world. In its analyses of Proto SF to 20th century SF texts, this study draws exciting parallels between our present reality and those imagined, not-so-distant, futures.

Eleanore Gardner, Deakin University

This volume’s ten chapters by contributors from around the world makes an effective case for the literary, cultural and even philosophical importance of science fiction. Its explorations of key themes and ideas range across the varied modes of the genre, exploring its cross-fertilizations with realism, fantasy, children’s literature, the detective and the adventure novel. Underscoring these analyses are questions concerning the very terms with which modernity addresses its present and future. Particularly impressive is how each chapter addresses science fiction’s Promethean warnings of the dangers of technological and positivist overreach, and how these infect capitalism with a utilitarianism that would strangle not only social advancement but also the arts themselves. One key argument of the volume is that dystopias emerge in response to a utopian text’s implicit critiques of capitalism’s amplification of the Industrial Revolution’s inequities. Also impressive is the wealth of information about the authors, texts, genre definitions, subgenre distinctions, critical responses, and the depth of historical and cultural contextual detail.

Myles Chilton, Nihon University