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Eric Schultheis
, February 04, 2007
(view all comments by Eric Schultheis)
Science fiction writers Alexei and Cory Panshin attempt to correlate the history of the philosophy of science with the history of science fiction. As each succeeding generation absorbed the scientific discoveries of generations past, so too did each generation of writers envision a different universe of possibilities. I will leave it up to the likes of Brian Aldiss to determine whether the Panshins have done a perfect job, but I found this book immensely enjoyable and great food for thought.
While we would all agree that H.G. Wells was a superior writer to E.E. "Doc" Smith, only a book like this could argue in one of its chapters that Smith was a successor who blazed a trail out of the philosophical bog that Wells could not leave.
This book explores every corner that science fiction has had to turn to become what we recognize today, and it examines the authors and works that have helped turn those corners. If you are wondering what is next for science fiction, or perhaps pondering the problem of the post-human singularity in modern science fiction, you should pick up this book and see how many philosophical dead-ends were overcome to get us here.
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