The Road to Science Fiction

The best series, historically arranged, of SF anthologies ever assembled...All six volumes belong in the library of every university, school, and teacher and reader of science fiction. Gunn has gathered stories of importance to the development of SF and stories that represent the best writing of the genre. * Anatomy of Wonder, 5th Edition * ...provides one of the most comprehensive views of the field and should be required reading for all students of sf. It has withstood the test of time, with classic stories....Gunn's headnotes and introductions remain provocative, even years later. The Road to Science Fiction can be read as an historical document, one that says much about Gunn, his mind, and his take on sf as it does about the state of sf from its roots to its full maturity as a genre. * Science Fiction Studies *

James Gunn is Emeritus Professor of English at University of Kansas.

Part 1 INTRODUCTION Part 2 Born of Skill and Money Chapter 3 Born of Man and Woman Part 4 Heart of Darkness Chapter 5 The Luckiest Man in Denv Part 6 A Clash of Symbols Chapter 7 Common Time Part 8 Word Magic Chapter 9 My Boy Friend's Name is Jello Part 10 A Canticle for the Fifties Chapter 11 The First Canticle Part 12 The Lodestone Genre Chapter 13 Nobody Bothers Gus Part 14 Inferiority: The Complex Problem Chapter 15 Flowers for Algernon Part 16 A Question of Identity Chapter 17 The Moon Moth Part 18 The View From the Outside Chapter 19 The Library of Babel Part 20 Inner Concerns in Outer Space Chapter 21 From Dune Part 22 The Vigor of Traditional SF Chapter 23 Light of Other Days Part 24 Ambiguities and Inscrutabilities Chapter 25 The First Sally (A), or Trurl's Electronic Bard Part 26 Entropy and the World War Chapter 27 The Heart and Death of the Universe Part 28 Speculations on Speculative Fiction Chapter 29 The Planners Part 30 The Alienness of the Alien Chapter 31 The Dance of the Changer and the Three Part 32 The Virtues of Indirection Chapter 33 The Last Flight of Dr. Ain Part 34 Radical Sensibility Chapter 35 Where No Sun Shines Part 36 Escape Reading Chapter 37 The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories Part 38 Understanding Reader Reaction Chapter 39 Angouleme Part 40 The Postwar Generation Chapter 41 Gather Blue Roses Part 42 The Star Trek Syndrome Chapter 43 With a Finger in My I Part 44 Of Men, and Women, and Society Chapter 45 Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand Part 46 Of Novas and Other Stars Chapter 47 Air Raid Part 48 Science Fiction, Aliens, and Alienation Chapter 49 Uncoupling Part 50 Exotic Parables Chapter 51 Rogue Tomato Part 52 The Labor Day Group Chapter 53 This Tower of Ashes Part 54 Fiction and Science Chapter 55 Particle Theory Part 56 The Anthropology of the Future Chapter 57 View from a Height Part 58 Form and Content Chapter 59 The Word Sweep Part 60 Dialectic of History and Transcendence Chapter 61 The World Science Fiction Convention of 2080 Part 62 Estranging the Everyday Chapter 63 Abominable Part 64 Science and Fiction Chapter 65 Exposures Part 66 The Real and the Surreal Chapter 67 Schrdinger's Kitten