The Astounding Illustrated History of Science Fiction

By Dave Golder, Jess Nevins, Russ Thorne, et al.

A truly astonishing, illustrated history of Science fiction, covering fantasy, and horror, with forays into crime, mystery and the gothic. Using timelines, online links, illustrations, posters, movie stills, book covers, and more, this amazing new book propels us into the well of modern imagination, from its roots in Frankenstein, through Verne, H.G. Wells, the late gothic and weird horror of Lovecraft to the mass market sensationalism of the Pulp magazines. The Pulps then invoked a new generation of writers (such as Ray Bradbury and Robert Bloch) of the Golden Age before many transitioned to screenwriting for the movies and early TV (Psycho, Star Trek, Twilight Zone), inspiring, in turn, the invasion of superheroes, gigantic spaceships, and dystopian landscapes onto our data-streaming tablets and computers. The book explores the interplay between great writers, (Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke) and story-telling directors (Kubrick, James Cameron, Ridley Scott, Christopher Nolan, George Lucas) who create powerful Sci-Fi, reflecting and challenging the developments of technology, science and society. Each have played a major role in this all-consuming, speculative form of world-building, from its early manifestation as a shocking literary event, to the mass market sensation is today.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1786645270
• ISBN13: 9781786645272
• Release Date: October 2017
• Publisher: Flame Tree Illustrated
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 3.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 11.6" x 11.4"

Customer Reviews

Missing Galaxy Quest (1999) – what else is missing?

Part of the “Inspirations & Techniques Series”. This oversized book can make a fair coffee table book. It tries to be too much and leaves out many films and books. The films and books that are included are lightweight or skimmed over. First published in 2017, there is an attempt to show Sci-fi in chronological order: “Science Fiction Unbound” (pre-1500 to 1894) “New Frontiers” (1895-1925) “The Rise of the Pulps” (1926-1942) “A Time of Transition” (1943-1959) “Reinventing the Genre” (1960-1976) “Back to the Future” (1977-1989) “The Information Age” (1990-2008) “The Future is Now” (2009-2020). There are lots of great still shots that make the book look better than it is. There are sections on Key People, Further Reading, Acknowledgments, and an extensive index. So where is it? Galaxy Quest (1999) The Questor Tapes (1974) World on a Wire (1973) (The Criterion Collection)