The Road to Science Fiction: From Gilgamesh to Wells: Volume 1

By James E. Gunn

Book Overview

Now in Paperback

Between an ancient Roman's trip to the moon and the fantastic tales of H.G. Wells lies a journey through time and space and an awesome evolution in scientific thinking. From Gilgamesh's search for immortality to Lucian's odyssey on the moon; from Jonathan Swift's hilarious satire on scientists in Gulliver's Travels to Mary Shelley's horrifying description of a scientist who has gone too far in Frankenstein from Edgar Allan Poe's balloon trip in the year 2848 to Jules Verne's prophesies of the impact of scientific inventions on future civilization; from Edward Bellamy's utopian escape from the industrial Revolution to H.G. Wells's magnificent story of Earth threatened by an inescapable menace-here are the chief ancestors of the modern science fiction story. For the first time, these and other key works are gathered together in one anthology, complete with revealing commentary on the authors, their eras, and the role each played in establishing what we today recognize as science fiction.

The Road to Science Fiction is a six-volume anthology of science fiction that covers the development of science fiction from its earliest prototypes in the Sumerian Gilgamesh and the Greek epics to approximately 1990. Created originally to provide anthologies for use in classes, these volumes have become mass-market sellers as well, since they are not only a source of outstanding stories but also explain what constitutes science fiction, how it developed and the contribution the authors and the stories have made to the evolution of science fiction.

Cloth edition previously published in 1979.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0810844141
• ISBN13: 9780810844148
• Release Date: September 2002
• Publisher: Scarecrow Press
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 1.19 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.9" x 8.8"

Customer Reviews

Not Free SF Reader

The subtitle for the first of the Road To Science Fiction is 'From Gilgamesh to Wells'. Ancient mythological legends are only talked about in introduction, though. This is not a volume of short stories in general, as the time period the editor is tracing the changes in human thought and method over didn't have such things. In fact, he points out that 'The Diamond Lens' may be the first SF story 'as such'. So, here it does make sense to use excerpts where there is no other choice, fro, Verne, Shelley, Swift, etc. Apart from that, the best three stories are right at the end, so people just interested in that part of it should start there, and browse the rest, which will be of little interest to many. Browsing the intro pieces to the work is worth a look, even if you don't want to read ancient Greek silliness, for example. Road To Science Fiction 1 : A True Story [short story] - Lucian Samosata Road To Science Fiction 1 : The Voyages and Travels of Sir John Mandeville [short story] - Anonymous Anonymous Road To Science Fiction 1 : Utopia [short story] - Sir Thomas More Road To Science Fiction 1 : The City of the Sun [short story] - Tommaso Campanella Road To Science Fiction 1 : The New Atlantis [short story] - Francis Bacon Road To Science Fiction 1 : Somnium or Lunar Astronomy - Johannes Kepler Road To Science Fiction 1 : A Voyage to the Moon [short story] - Cyrano de Bergerac Road To Science Fiction 1 : A Voyage to Laputa [short story] - Jonathan Swift Road To Science Fiction 1 : The Journey to the World Underground [short story] - Ludwig Holberg Road To Science Fiction 1 : Frankenstein [short story] - Mary Shelley Road To Science Fiction 1 : Rappaccini's Daughter - Nathaniel Hawthorne Road To Science Fiction 1 : Mellonta Tauta - Edgar Allan Poe Road To Science Fiction 1 : The Diamond Lens - Fitz-James O'Brien Road To Science Fiction 1 : Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea [short story] - Jules Verne Road To Science Fiction 1 : Around the Moon [short story] - Jules Verne Road To Science Fiction 1 : She [short story] - H. Rider Haggard Road To Science Fiction 1 : Looking Backward [short story] - Edward Bellamy Road To Science Fiction 1 : The Damned Thing - Ambrose Bierce Road To Science Fiction 1 : With the Night Mail - Rudyard Kipling Road To Science Fiction 1 : The Star - H. G. Wells Buzzard cavalry in Cloudcuckooland. 3 out of 5 "Of the Palace of the King of the Isle of Java. Of the Trees that bear meal, honey, wine, and venom; and of other marvels and customs used in the Isles marching thereabout." 3 out of 5 "The island of Utopia is in the middle two hundred miles broad, and holds almost at the same breadth over a great part of it, but it grows narrower towards both ends. Its figure is not unlike a crescent. Between its horns the sea comes in eleven miles broad, and spreads itself into a great bay, which is environed with land to the compass of about five hundred miles, and is well secured from winds. In this bay there is no