This is Not a Science Fiction Textbook

This Is Not a Science Fiction Textbook is due out on 6 February 2004.

It ispart of a new series conceptualised as being for graduates contemplating a return to education (and other general audiences). The first two sections, mostly by me, contain 500- or 1000-word introductions to critical/theoretical approaches and genre history; the third section, by brilliant and lovely others, pairs a 500-word introduction to a critical idea with a 500-word introduction to a key contemporary novel (plus a 50-word introduction to a key contemporary film by me).

If you buy the book, start with the final section; you can hear me banging on about stuff any old time.

When first approached about This Is Not a Science Fiction Textbook, I imagined a quick and dirty 4–6 month project that would be over by Xmas 2021, so eighteen months wasn’t too bad.

Table of contents
Introduction – Steven Shaviro
How to use this book – Mark Bould
Part one: theory
1. Genre – Mark Bould
2. Defining science fiction – Mark Bould
3. Estrangement – Mark Bould
4. Extrapolation – Mark Bould
5. Alterity– Mark Bould
6. Historicising the present – Mark Bould
7. The language of sf  – Mark Bould
8. Spectacle – Mark Bould
Part two: history
9. Scientific revolutions – Mark Bould
10. Imperialism and colonialism – Mark Bould
11. The French roman scientifique – Mark Bould
12. The British scientific romance – Mark Bould
13. Nineteenth-century US sf – Mark Bould
14. The US sf magazines – Mark Bould
15. The New Wave – Gerry Canavan
16. Feminist sf of the 1960s and 1970s – Katie Stone
17. Ecological sf of the 1960s and 1970s – Sarah Lohmann
18. World sf – Mark Bould
Part three: key concepts
19. Afrofuturism – Aisha Matthews
20. N.K. Jemisin, The Fifth Season (2015) – Aisha Matthews
21. Alien Encounters – Joy Sanchez-Taylor
22. Nnedi Okorafor, Binti (2014) – Joy Sanchez-Taylor
23. Alternate history – Glyn Morgan
24. Nisi Shawl, Everfair (2016) – Glyn Morgan
25. Animal studies – Sherryl Vint
26. Adrian Tchaikovsky, Children of Time (2015) – Sherryl Vint
27. Climate fiction – Rebecca McWilliams Ojala Ballard, Col Roche and Elena Walsh
28. Kim Stanley Robinson, New York 2140 (2017) – Rebecca McWilliams Ojala Ballard, Col Roche and Elena Walsh
29. Contagion – Anna McFarlane
30. Ling Ma, Severance (2018) – Anna McFarlane
31. Cyberpunk – Anna McFarlane
32. Larissa Lai, The Tiger Flu (2018) – Anna McFarlane
33. Disability – David Hartley
34. Mira Grant, Into the Drowning Deep (2017) – David Hartley
35. Dystopia – Sarah Lohmann
36. Leni Zumas, Red Clocks (2018) – Sarah Lohmann
37. Gender – Katie Stone
38. Kameron Hurley, The Stars are Legion (2017) – Katie Stone
39. Globalisation – Hugh C. O’Connell
40. Malka Older, Infomocracy (2016) – Hugh C. O’Connell
41. Hard sf – Sherryl Vint
42. Sue Burke, Semiosis (2018) – Sherryl Vint
43. Latinxfuturism – Taryne Jade Taylor
44. Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Gods of Jade and Shadow (2019) – Taryne Jade Taylor
45. Neurodiversity – David Hartley
46. Dora Raymaker, Hoshi and the Red City Circuit (2018) – David Hartley
47. Postcolonial sf – Hugh C. O’Connell
48. Namwali Serpell, The Old Drift (2019) – Hugh C. O’Connell
49. Posthumanism – Chris Pak
50. Tade Thompson, Rosewater (2016) – Chris Pak
51. Queer sf – Katie Stone
52. Rivers Solomon with Daveed Diggs, William Hudson and Jonathan Snipes, The Deep (2019) – Katie Stone
53. Space opera – David M. Higgins
54. Ann Leckie, Ancillary Justice (2013) – David M. Higgins
55. Time travel – Glyn Morgan
56. Annalee Newitz, The Future of Another Timeline (2019) – Glyn Morgan
57. Utopia – Sarah Lohmann
58. Sarah Pinsker, A Song for a New Day (2020) – Sarah Lohmann
59. Weird – Roger Luckhurst
60. Catlín R. Kiernan, Agents of Dreamland (2017) – Roger Luckhurst