David Seed

This is a brief discussion of recent academic criticism of Science Fiction (both literature and movies). Though the author promises to avoid a historical approach, devoting chapters to themes rather than periods, each chapter turns out to be a small history. This leads to a sense of repetition. Within each chapter the author surveys a variety of critical approaches, citing many examples from Science Fiction books and film, without devoting much attention to any one of them. Though there is a faint Marxist undertone to the book, still, as in many Oxford Very Short Introductions, the appropriate genuflections are made in the directions of all popular critical coteries. In short, this book doesn't say much of interest to the Science Fiction fan, but gets lost in an academic echo chamber. Recommended for undergraduates in literature looking for a compendium of quick references.… (meer)