Paratexts: Introductions to Science Fiction and Fantasy

by James Gunn

Overview

In the mid-1980s, Easton Press began publishing a series of leather-bound collector editions called “Masterpieces of Science Fiction” and “Masterpieces of Fantasy,” which featured some of the most important works in these genres. James Gunn was commissioned to write introductions to these works, which allowed him to pay tribute to many authors who inspired and influenced his own work.

In Paratexts: Introductions to Science Fiction and Fantasy, Gunn has collected the most significant essays produced for the Easton series, along with prefaces he wrote for reprints of his own novels. Cited here are some of the most significant works of 19th and 20th century science fiction and fantasy, such as The Island of Dr. Moreau, 1984, Stranger in a Strange Land, A Clockwork Orange, Speaker for the Dead, The Postman, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe, The Dead Zone, The Mists of Avalon, Dragon’s Eye, Nine Princes in Amber, Blue Mars, The Last Unicorn, and The Lord of the Rings.

Drawing upon Gunn’s lifetime of work in the field, these introductions include analyses of the individual works and the fields in which they were written. Gunn also briefly discusses each novel’s significance in the science fiction canon. Collected here for the first time, these prefaces and introductions provide readers with insight into more than seventy novels, making Paratexts a must-read for science fiction and fantasy aficionados.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780810891227
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	04/18/2013
Pages:	242
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

James Gunn, emeritus professor of English and director of the Center for the Study of Science Fiction at the University of Kansas, has published nearly one hundred short stories and more than forty books, including the novels The Immortals and The Joy Makers. His books about science fiction include Isaac Asimov: The Foundations of Science Fiction, The Science of Science Fiction Writing, and the six-volume The Road to Science Fiction. Gunn is the twenty-fourth writer recognized by the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America as a grand master.

Table of Contents

CONTENTS Preface Prefaces (to books by James Gunn) Star Bridge Station in Space Breaking Point The Immortals The Joy Makers The Magicians Some Dreams Are Nightmares The Burning The Listeners Human Voices Gift from the Stars The Dreamers Kampus Masterpieces of Science Fiction Masterpieces and Me The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein The World of Null-A, A. E. van Vogt A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr. 1984, George Orwell A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess Fury, Henry Kuttner Out of the Silent Planet, C. S. Lewis The Moon Pool, A. Merritt What Mad Universe, Fredric Brown Blood Music, Greg Bear Speaker for the Dead, Orson Scott Card Islands in the Net, Bruce Sterling The Postman, David Brin When Gravity Fails, George Alec Effinger Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Philip K. Dick The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe, Douglas Adams Childhood’s End, Arthur C. Clarke Doomsday Book, Connie Willis Brute Orbits, George Zebrowski City, Clifford D. Simak Flatland, Edwin A. Abbott Flowers for Algernon, Daniel Keyes The Island of Dr. Moreau, H. G. Wells The Sword of the Lictor, Gene Wolfe Jem, Frederik Pohl The Lost World, Arthur Conan Doyle The Dead Zone, Stephen King Masterpieces of Fantasy The Other Side of the Mirror Nine Princes in Amber, Roger Zelazny Magician, Raymond E. Feist The Malacia Tapestry, Brian W. Aldiss Mythago Wood, Robert Holdstock The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag, Robert A. Heinlein The Belgariad, Pawn of Prophecy, David Eddings The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Lord Foul’s Bane, Stephen Donaldson The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley Three Hearts and Three Lions, Poul Anderson The Complete Compleat Enchanter, L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt Darker Than You Think, Jack Williamson Black Easter and The Day After Judgment, James Blish Gather, Darkness!, Fritz Leiber Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake The Last Unicorn, Peter Beagle Little, Big, John Crowley The Lord of the Rings, J. R. R. Tolkien Lord Valentine’s Castle, Robert Silverberg Signed First Editions of Science Fiction Falling Free, Lois McMaster Bujold Ancient Shores, Jack McDevitt Blue Mars, Kim Stanley Robinson Cloud’s Rider, C. J. Cherryh Cosm, Gregory Benford Destiny’s Road, Larry Niven Dragon’s Eye, Anne McCaffrey Dreamfall, Joan D. Vinge Evolution’s Shore, Ian McDonald A Fisherman of the Inland Sea, Ursula K. LeGuin Illegal Alien, Robert J. Sawyer Lifehouse, Spider Robinson The Memory Cathedral, Jack Dann Moonrise, Ben Bova About the Author

Editorial Reviews

As it stands, Paratexts is more than it appears at the outset—or bigger on the inside, as some fans of a particular British television show might say: the prefaces, introductions, and notes collected within the relatively slim volume are approachable enough for casual readers of science fiction and fantasy but replete with useful insights on authors, authorship, periodicals, presses, genre and more for the most advanced scholar of the fantastic. Like the highly regarded Easton Press series from which many of his individual remarks were derived, Gunn’s collection is a treasure in its own right.

The Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts

This book contains introductions and prefaces written by the author for a series of leather-bound collector editions by Easton Press in the mid-1980s called Masterpieces of Science Fiction and Masterpieces of Fantasy, along with a series called Signed First Editions of Science Fiction. They are compiled into this volume, along with reprinted prefaces for 13 of the author's own books. These prefaces and introductions are of value in their own right, as compilations of historical and genre-specific timepieces related to the growth and popularity of science fiction and fantasy from the 1980s onward; putting them all into one volume, as a timeline for these genres as well as a glimpse into the author's own writing and scholarship on the topics, is a gem for science fiction and fantasy readers, especially since many of these books have since become classics in the literature.

American Reference Books Annual