These magazines featured lurid covers, often incorporating bug-eyed monsters, stylized spaceships, and scantily clad women, and they obviously targeted adolescent males as their primary audience. During the 1920s and 1930s, pulp fiction magazines proliferated in the United States in particular many of them were either exclusively or at least partially devoted to scientific romances. Wells and those who followed him were concerned with character, prose, and commentary. Wells, who invented or at least popularized many of the major themes in the genre, is generally cited as the father of serious science fiction, novels that try to predict the future or that describe how people might react to a speculative situation such as time travel, invaders from Mars, or the gift of invisibility. Stories in this tradition often focus on a marvelous invention or wondrous journey and generally have a less than serious tone and perhaps superficial characterization. Jules Verne, known for his series of novels about fantastic voyages, is often credited as the first major author of the science fiction adventure story. Science fiction developed as a series of intertwined schools of writing. Such authors might have suggested a concept that spawned superior imitations or involved an idea too unique to be repeated. Sometimes, less important authors happened to produce a story whose significance is unrelated to the quality of the writing. Keep in mind that the most “important” work is not necessarily the best written, although that is often the case as well. Selected Bibliography of Secondary Sourcesĭescribed elsewhere in the book. Toro Cover design by Semadar Megged Printed in the United States of America VB FOF 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 This book is printed on acid-free paper. You can find Facts On File on the World Wide Web at Text design by Joan M. Please call our Special Sales Department in New York at (212) 967-8800 or (800) 322-8755. PS374.S35D33 2004 813'.0876209'003-dc222004013819 Facts On File books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk quantities for businesses, associations, institutions, or sales promotions. Includes bibliographical references and index. 132 West 31st Street New York NY 10001 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data D’Ammassa, Don, 1946– Encyclopedia of science fiction / Don D’Ammassa. For information contact: Facts On File, Inc. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. Encyclopedia of Science Fiction DON D ’AMMASSAĮncyclopedia of Science Fiction Copyright © 2005 by Don D’Ammassa All rights reserved.
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