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.