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SF and the Human Imagination
In Other Worlds: Science Fiction and the Human Imagination is Margaret Atwood's account of her relationship with the literary form we have come to know as science fiction. This relationship has been lifelong, stretching from her days as a child reader in the 1940s through her time as a graduate student at Harvard, where she explored the Victorian ancestors of the form, and continuing with her work as a writer and reviewer. This book brings together her three heretofore unpublished Ellmann Lectures of 2010 - "Flying Rabbits," which begins with Atwood's early rabbit superhero creations and goes on to speculate about masks, capes, weakling alter egos, and Things with Wings; "Burning Bushes," which follows her into Victorian other-lands and beyond; and "Dire Cartographies," which investigates utopias and dystopias. In Other Worlds also includes some of Atwood's key reviews and musings about the form, including her elucidation of the differences (as she sees them) between "science fiction" proper and "speculative fiction," as well as "sword and sorcery/fantasy" and "slipstream fiction." For all readers who have loved The Handmaid's Tale, Oryx and Crake, and The Year of the Flood - not to mention Atwood's 100,000 plus Twitter followers - In Other Worlds is a must.
"This enjoyable volume, tellingly dedicated to Ursula K. Le Guin, reveals a writer with strong, often fascinating, if idiosyncratic opinions about genre SF." - Publishers Weekly
"Starred Review. A witty, astute collection of essays and lectures on science fiction... wholly satisfying, with plenty of insights for Atwood and sci-fi fans alike." - Kirkus Reviews
"Atwood archly and profoundly delves into her 'lifelong relationship' with science fiction in a collection of glimmering essays." - Booklist
"This amazing woman's voice, this fine writer's constant example, is extraordinary." - Boston Globe
"One of the most intelligent and talented writers to set herself the task of deciphering life in the late twentieth century." - Vogue
This information about In Other Worlds was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
is the author of more than fifty books of fiction, poetry, and critical essays. She has won the Booker Prize, the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Imagination in Service to Society, the Franz Kafka Prize, the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, the PEN USA Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. She lives in Toronto, Canada.
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