Andy Sawyer – författare

Given that science fiction, in its many forms and genres, engages in sometimes serious speculation about science, history, and all types of social relations, and that its recurrent themes—such as the concept of the alien, alternative identities, and the role of technology—chime with so many contemporary anxieties and concerns, it is perhaps no surprise that as early as 1960 Kingsley Amis was able to remark (in his New Maps of Hell) that ‘to read, and to study, science fiction are valid and interesting pursuits from any old point of view, whether literary, sociological, psychological, political, or what you will’.Now, as serious academic work on science fiction continues to blossom, this new four-volume collection from Routledge meets the need for an authoritative anthology to enable users to make better sense of the subject’s unwieldy body of scholarship, and the continuing explosion in research output.The four volumes have been expertly edited by Andy Sawyer of Liverpool University, home of Europe’s largest catalogued collection of SF material. Science Fiction is fully indexed and has a comprehensive introduction, newly written by the editor. It is an essential work of reference and will be valued by scholars and students as a vital one-stop resource.

This is a critical study of the wide range, development, and thematic complexity of Terry Pratchett, the leading fantasy writer of his time, an inventive humourist who, in the famous phrase, was “occasionally... accused of literature”. Ranging from the Discworld series to the equally successful (and award-winning) novels for children and the unrelated “stand-alone” novels, it examines Pratchett’s work as a whole. It makes particular reference to his position as a “popular” writer in the context of a “fannish” readership attuned to responding to, discussing, and arguing about texts, and the responses from more theoretically-based critics and “literary” readers who came to understand how Pratchett's inventive comic absurdity highlights fury at unfairness and moral self-deception. The book discusses how this allowed him to respond to his audience – or audiences – and to explore how “story” – the narratives we build about ourselves and the world – can be both liberating and shackling. It also investigates Pratchett's growing maturity and expertise as a writer, which allowed him to play with the conventions and thematics of genre, surpassing the pastiche and parody of his earlier works without dismissing the capability of fantasy and science fiction to foreground morality and ethics.

This is a critical study of the wide range, development, and thematic complexity of Terry Pratchett, the leading fantasy writer of his time, an inventive humourist who, in the famous phrase, was “occasionally... accused of literature”. Ranging from the Discworld series to the equally successful (and award-winning) novels for children and the unrelated “stand-alone” novels, it examines Pratchett’s work as a whole. It makes particular reference to his position as a “popular” writer in the context of a “fannish” readership attuned to responding to, discussing, and arguing about texts, and the responses from more theoretically-based critics and “literary” readers who came to understand how Pratchett's inventive comic absurdity highlights fury at unfairness and moral self-deception. The book discusses how this allowed him to respond to his audience – or audiences – and to explore how “story” – the narratives we build about ourselves and the world – can be both liberating and shackling. It also investigates Pratchett's growing maturity and expertise as a writer, which allowed him to play with the conventions and thematics of genre, surpassing the pastiche and parody of his earlier works without dismissing the capability of fantasy and science fiction to foreground morality and ethics.