Review by Choice Review
The product of the 1984 J. Lloyd Eaton Conference of Science Fiction, this volume contains (as Part 2) seven essays on Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949). This section will be the most valuable for most academic libraries, with, for example, a sociological reading of that novel's apocalyptic imagery and an essay that offers both a valuable generic placement of Nineteen Eighty-Four and an equally good discussion of Orwell's Newspeak. The other two sections, with ten essays together, offer a variety of topics related to SF's treatment of the future, some historical, some contemporary. An early history of future fiction is given, with discussion of an 1834 essay on the form; three types of predicted fictional futures are analyzed, as is the difference between European and American predictions; the lunacy of modern events is taken as vitiating short-range future predictions. Most of the essayists are academicians, some part-time SF writers (e.g., Gregory Benford); three or four are professional writers, the best known being Frederick Pohl. In general, these are solidly academic essays, the first unfortunately filled with jargon, not greatly appealing to casual (public library) readers. Recommended at the upper-division undergraduate and graduate levels for popular literature collections-but the section on Orwell suggests wider use.-J.R. Christopher, Tarleton State University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
