Easton Press Masterpieces of Science Fiction

Science fiction is a form of fiction which deals principally with the impact of imagined science and/or technology upon society or individuals.

The following are books published by the Easton Press in the Masterpieces of Science Fiction series. The Masterpieces of Science Fiction series includes both author signed and unsigned titles. Some titles were published as an author signed edition for a time period and unsigned for another time period.

 

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  The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells - 1967
  The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov - 1986
  The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester - 1986
  What Mad Universe by Fredric Brown - 1986
  A Princess of Mars / At the Earth's Core by Edgar Rice Burroughs - 1986
  Downbelow Station by C.J. Cherryh - 1986
  2001 A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke - 1986
  The Einstein Intersection by Samuel R. Delany - 1986
  To Your Scattered Bodies Go by Philip José Farmer - 1986
  Kampus by James E. Gunn - 1986
  The Black Cloud by Fred Hoyle - 1986
  The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin - 1986
  Gateway by Frederik Pohl (signed edition) - 1986
  The Time Machine by H.G. Wells - 1986
  The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells - 1986
  This Immortal by Roger Zelazny - 1986
  Hothouse by Brian W. Aldiss - 1987
  Tau Zero by Poul Anderson - 1987
  Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner - 1987
  Mission of Gravity by Hal Clement - 1987
  Dune by Frank Herbert - 1987
  Solaris by Stanislaw Lem - 1987
  Before Adam by Jack London - 1987
  Bring The Jubilee by Ward Moore - 1987
  Odd John by Olaf Stapledon - 1987
  The Humanoids by Jack Williamson - 1987
  The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov (earlier signed edition) - 1988
  The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov (later not signed version) - 1988
  Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury - 1988
  Rogue Moon by Algis Budrys - 1988
  Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C. Clarke - 1988
  Lest Darkness Fall by L. Sprague de Camp - 1988
  The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick - 1988
  Dorsai! by Gordon R. Dickson - 1988
  Forever War by Joe Haldeman - 1988
  The Big Time by Fritz Leiber - 1988
  Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey (signed edition) - 1988
  Ringworld by Larry Niven - 1988
  A Time of Changes by Robert Silverberg - 1988
  Way Station by Clifford Simak - 1988
  The World of A (Null) by A.E. van Vogt - 1988
  The Dragon Masters by Jack Vance - 1988
  Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne - 1988
  Timescape by Gregory Benford - 1989
  Case of Conscience by James Blish - 1989
  The Kinsman Saga by Ben Bova - 1989
  The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury (signed edition) - 1989
  The Poison Belt by Arthur Conan Doyle - 1989
  Mortal Gods by Jonathan Fast - 1989
  Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein - 1989
  More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon - 1989
  From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne - 1989
  Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang by Kate Wilhelm - 1989
  The Shadow of The Torturer by Gene Wolfe - 1989
  The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham - 1989
  Blood Music by Greg Bear - 1990
  Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card - 1990
  They'd Rather Be Right by Mark Clifton - Frank Riley - 1990
  Deathbird Stories by Harlan Ellison - 1990
  Neuromancer by William Gibson - 1990
  Fury by Henry Kuttner - 1990
  The Cyberiad by Stanislaw Lem - 1990
  The Shrinking Man by Richard Matheson - 1990
  Dreamsnake by Vonda N. McIntyre - 1990
  Man Plus by Frederik Pohl - 1990
  Venus of Dreams by Pamela Sargent -1990
  The Snow Queen by Joan D. Vinge - 1990
  The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells - 1990
  Macrolife by George Zebrowski - 1990
  The Crystal World by J. G. Ballard - 1991
  No Enemy but Time by Michael Bishop - 1991
  Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury - 1991
  The Listeners by James E. Gunn - 1991
  The Wanderer by Fritz Leiber - 1991
  Beyond Apollo by Barry N. Malzberg - 1991
  The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournell - 1991
  Rite of Passage by Alexei Panshin - 1991
  Stardance by Spider Robinson and Jeanne Robinson - 1991
  Dying Inside by Robert Silverberg (signed edition) - 1991
  Hyperion by Dan Simmons - 1991
  The Skylark of Space by Edward E. Smith - 1991
  Earth Abides by George R. Stewart - 1991

  The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut - (signed edition) - 1991 (unsigned version) - 2001
  Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany - 1992
  Invasion of The Body Snatchers by Jack Finney - 1992
  She by H. Rider Haggard - 1992
  The Paradox Men by Charles L. Harness - 1992
  Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin (signed edition) - 1992
  This is the Way the World Ends by James Morrow - 1992
  Animal Farm by George Orwell - 1992
  Nineteen Eighty Four by George Orwell - 1992
  Door Into Ocean by Joan Slonczewski - 1992
  Bug Jack Barron by Norman Spinrad - 1992
  The Year of The Quiet Sun by Wilson Tucker - 1992
  The Embedding by Ian Watson - 1992
  Doomsday Book by Connie Willis - 1992
  Helliconia Spring by Brian W. Aldiss - 1993
  The Alteration by Kingsley Amis - 1993
  The Postman by David Brin - 1993
  Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (signed edition) - 1993
  Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke - 1993
  On Wings of Song by Thomas M. Disch - 1993
  When Gravity Falls by George Alec Effinger - 1993
  Final Blackout by L. Ron Hubbard - 1993
  The Dead Zone by Stephen King - 1993
  The Dunwich Horror and Others by H.P. Lovecraft - 1993
  The Claw of the Conciliator by Gene Wolfe - 1993
  We by Yevgeny Zamyatin - 1993
  Macroscope by Piers Anthony - 1994
  Startide Rising by David Brin - 1994
  Out of The Silent Planet by C. S. Lewis - 1994
  The Moon Pool by A. Merritt - 1994
  A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr. - 1994
  The Female Man by Joanna Russ - 1994
  Islands in the Net by Bruce Sterling - 1994
  Slan by A.E. van Vogt (signed edition) - 1994
  Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny - 1994
  Flatland A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin Abbott - 1995
  Tarzan of The Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs - 1995
  Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke - 1995
  Lost World by Conan Arthur Doyle - 1995
  Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes - 1995
  Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin - 1995
  Jem by Frederik Pohl - 1995
  The Terminal Experiment by Robert Sawyer - 1995
  City by Clifford Simak - 1995
  The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells - 1995
  Rogue Queen by L. Sprague de Camp - 1996
  The Sword of Lictor by Gene Wolfe - 1996
  The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy by Douglas Adams - 1998

  A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess - 2000
  Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson - 2000
  Brute Orbits by George Zebrowski - 2000 

  Moving Mars by Greg Bear - 2001
  Falling Free by Lois McMaster Bujold - 2001
  The Moon and the Sun by Vonda N. McIntyre - 2001
  The Healer's War by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough - 2001

  Forever Peace by Joe Haldeman - 2002
  The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson - 2002
  Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick - 2008
  Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein - 2008

 

 

Science Fiction is the fictional portrayal of scientific subjects in books, comics, movies, television, and other media. Science Fiction can cover a broad range of subjects such as time travel, space travel, alien species, fictional inventions, and scientific discoveries. Other genres such as horror, mystery, action, romance and even comedy can contain elements of science fiction. Historically Science Fiction dates back to the ancient Greeks as seen in books such as Vera Historia by Greek author Lucian. Science Fiction in the modern sense began in the 18Th century with classic stories such as Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift displaying the basic imagination that forms a foundation for modern Science Fiction. During the 19Th century, science fiction developed into what could truly be a separate genre. Perhaps the one author who could best be credited with pioneering modern Science Fiction is Jules Verne. It was in the classic books by Jules Verne that readers first saw science fiction used to predict scientific and technological inventions of the future. Jules Verne was able to predict space travel, submarines, and aerial bombing in books such as 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1870) and From the Earth to the Moon (1865). He also fictionalized geology in Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864). Following Jules Verne, were popular authors who again expanded the subjects in science fiction such as H. G. Wells. With his exceptional novels such as The Invisible Man, The Time Machine, and War of the Worlds, H. G. Wells helped usher Science Fiction into the 20Th century.
 

As real life science and technology has progressed, so has science fiction with it. Through out the 20Th century, growing interest and fascination with technology and science has increased the popularity of science fiction media. Examples of this can be seen in the popularity of authors such as Arthur C. Clark, Michael Crichton, Ray Bradbury, and others. With the introduction of television and motion pictures, Science Fiction found an excellent platform to expand. Some great examples of Science Fiction's success in film and television are Star Trek, Star Wars, Jurassic Park, The Terminator series, and The Matrix.

 

Sometimes the characters involved are not even human, but are imagined aliens or other products of Earth evolution. The term is more generally used to refer to any literary fantasy that includes a scientific factor as an essential orienting component, and even more generally used to refer to any fantasy at all. Such literature may consist of a careful and informed extrapolation of scientific facts and principles, or it may range into far-fetched areas flatly contradictory of such facts and principles. In either case, plausibility based on science is a requisite, so that such precursors of the genre as Mary Shelley's Gothic novel Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus (1818) and Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886) are plainly science fiction, whereas Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897), based purely on the supernatural, is not. Sometimes utopic and dystopic literature is also regarded as science fiction, which is accurate insofar as sociology also is a science.
 

While Science Fiction has seen dramatic growth over the previous two centuries, it is likely that this is only the beginning of it's rise in popularity. With the increased use of technological devices in the everyday lives of average people we see an expansion of subjects suited to Science Fiction. While Science Fiction was seen as a genre for a minority of geeks in the early 20Th century, today geeks are becoming the majority in society.

Hard science fiction

Hard science fiction, or hard SF, is a subgenre of science fiction characterized by an interest in scientific detail or accuracy. Hard SF stories focus on the natural sciences and technological developments. Some authors scrupulously eschew such implausibilities as faster-than-light travel, while others accept such plot devices but nonetheless show a concern with a realistic depiction of the worlds that such a technology might make accessible. Character development is sometimes secondary to explorations of astronomical or physical phenomena, but other times authors make the human condition forefront in the story. However a common theme of hard SF has the resolution of the plot often hinging upon a technological point. Writers attempt to have their stories consistent with known science at the time of publication.

Soft science fiction

Soft science fiction is the subgenre where plots and themes tend to focus on philosophy, psychology, politics and sociology while de-emphasizing the details of technological hardware and physical laws. It is so-called 'soft' science fiction, because these subjects are grouped together as the soft sciences or humanities. For instance, in Dune, Frank Herbert uses the plot device of a universe which has rejected conscious machines and has reverted to a feudal society. Consequently Herbert uses the Dune saga to comment about the human condition and make direct parallels to current socio-political realities. Soft science fiction may explore the reactions of societies or individuals to problems posed by natural phenomena or technological developments, but the technology will be a means to an end, not an end itself.

Other types

There are, of course, many borderline cases of works using outer-space settings and futuristic-looking technology as little more than window-dressing for tales of adventure, romance, and other typical dramatic themes; examples include Star Wars (which is considered by some diehards to be not science fiction but fantasy) and many Hollywood space operas. Some fans of hard science fiction would regard such films as fantasy, whereas the general public would probably place them squarely in the science fiction category. It has been suggested as a method of resolving this confusion that SF come to stand for speculative fiction and thus encompass fantasy, horror fiction, and sci-fi genres.

History of science fiction

Science fiction was made possible only by the rise of modern science itself, notably the revolutions in astronomy and physics. Aside from the age-old genre of fantasy literature, which does not qualify, there were notable precursors: imaginary voyages to the moon in the 17th century, first shown in Johannes Kepler's Somnium (The Dream, 1634), then in Cyrano de Bergerac's Comical History of the States and Empires of the Moon (1656), space travel in Voltaire's Micromégas (1752), alien cultures in Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels (1726), and science fiction elements in the 19th-century stories of Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Fitz-James O'Brien. In Romantic Poetry, too, the writers' imaginations leapt to visions of other worlds and distant futures as in Alfred Lord Tennyson's 'Locksley Hall'.

Most notable, however, was Mary Shelley's work Frankenstein, published in 1818.

Early science fiction

The European brand of science fiction proper began, however, toward the end of the 19th century with the scientific romances of Jules Verne, whose science was rather on the level of invention, as well as the science-oriented novels of social criticism by H.G. Wells. Although better known for other works, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle also wrote early science fiction.

The development of American science fiction as a self-conscious genre dates (in part) from 1926, when Hugo Gernsback founded Amazing Stories magazine, which was devoted exclusively to science fiction stories. Since he is notable for having chosen the variant term scientifiction to describe this incipient genre, the stage in the genre's development, his name and the term "scientifiction" are often thought to be inextricably linked. Published in this and other pulp magazines with great and growing success, such scientifiction stories were not viewed as serious literature but as sensationalism.

The Golden Age

With the emergence in 1937 of a demanding editor, John W. Campbell, Jr., of Astounding Science Fiction (founded in 1930), and with the publication of stories and novels by such writers as Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, and Robert Heinlein, science fiction began to gain status as serious fiction. Ventures into the genre by writers who were not devoted exclusively to science fiction also added respectability; early such writers included Karel Capek, Aldous Huxley, and C. S. Lewis, and later writers included Ray Bradbury and Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Magazine covers of bug-eyed monsters and scantily-clad women, however, preserved the image of a sensational genre appealing only to adolescents.

The post-war era

A great boom in the popularity of science fiction followed World War II. Some science fiction works became paperback best-sellers. The postwar American power and prosperity helped to spread the works of American writers around the world. In Japan translations by Tetsu Yano introduced hundreds of US works to the local readership.

The modern era

The modern era began in the mid 1960s with the popularisation of the genre of soft science fiction. In literary terms it dates roughly from the publication of Frank Herbert's Dune in 1965, a dense, complex, and detailed work of fiction featuring political intrigue in a future galaxy, strange and mystical religious beliefs, and the eco-system of the desert planet Arrakis. While in 1966 Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek brought such science fiction to a mass television audience. The original Star Trek seems a little dated today, but at the time it was at the forefront of liberalism. It preached the universality and equality of humanity. It had an attractive black officer, the first interracial kiss on American TV, a Russian officer (this was at the height of the Cold War), an Asian officer, and even an alien officer.

The field saw an increase in:

the number of writers and readers
the breadth of subject matter
the depth of treatment
the sophistication of language and technique
the political and literary consciousness of the writing.
Also, technological fixes to a problem became a far rarer plot device.

A second generation of original and popular science fiction films begin to appear, among the most significant of which were 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), THX 1138 (1969) Close Encounters of the Third Kind, (1977), and Star Wars, (1977). (See the list of science fiction films article for a more detailed list of notable science fiction films).

The success of Star Wars was especially influential since it caused an explosive increase in interest for several years after its release in all forms of science fiction, though this has since somewhat abated. Science fiction literature strongly benefitted from this heightened interest and science fiction or fantasy titles frequently filled the bestseller lists well into the 1980s. Eventually, cultural interest in science fiction literature declined somewhat with consumer fatigue, flooded markets, and competition from other entertainment venues. Also, science fictional or fantasy "elements" began to be usurped by traditional authors and other types of media, though they were not significant enough to be classified as purely science fiction or fantasy. Today, pure science fiction or fantasy books only occasionally make the bestseller lists, although, in overall numbers there are more science fiction or fantasy books published now than in the past. Science fiction literature magazines, on the other hand, have seen a progressive and steady decline over the last 50 years.

The influence of fantasy on the genre resulted in what is now called science fantasy. Contributions of these works to the literature of the fantastic include an awareness of irrationality and the inexplicable, the transformative force of language, and the power of myth to organize experience. Star Wars is the most powerful example of this trend.

The increasing intellectual sophistication of the genre and the emphasis on wider societal and psychological issues significantly broadened the appeal of science fiction to the reading public. Science fiction became international, extending into the then Soviet Union and other eastern European nations, where it was frequently used as a vehicle for political commentary that could not be safely published in other forms. The Polish author Stanislaw Lem is one of the non-English science fiction writers who has become widely known outside his native country. Serious criticism of the genre is now common, and science fiction is studied in colleges and universities, both as literature and in how it relates to science and society.

The principal science fiction awards are the Hugo and Nebula.

Science fiction has also been popular in radio, comic books, television, and movies; it is notable that about three-quarters of the top twenty highest grossing films (source: IMDb June 2002) are based around science-fiction or fantasy themes.

Fandom

One of the unique features of the science fiction genre is its strong fan community, of which many authors are a firm part. Many people interested in science fiction wish to interact with others who share the same interests; over time an entire culture of science fiction fandom has evolved. Local fan groups exist in most of the English-speaking world, as well as in Japan, Europe, and elsewhere; these groups often publish their own works. Also, fans were the originator of science fiction conventions, which gave them a way of getting together to discuss their mutual interest. The original and largest convention is the Worldcon.

Many fanzines ("fan magazines") (and a few professional ones) exist that are dedicated solely to informing the science fiction fan on all aspects of the genre. The premiere awards of science fiction, the Hugo Awards, are awarded by members of the annual Worldcon, which is almost entirely volunteer-run by fans.

Science fiction fandom often overlaps with other similar interests, such as fantasy, role-playing games and the Society for Creative Anachronism.

Genres and subcategories
Hard science fiction
Soft science fiction
Space opera
Military science fiction
Science fantasy
Cyberpunk
The computers take over
Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic science fiction
Postcyberpunk
Social fiction
Clerical fiction
New Wave
Alternate History
Utopian and dystopian fiction
Comic science fiction
Science fiction sitcom
Science fiction erotica
Steampunk
Gay science fiction
Lesbian science fiction
Space-rock
Xenofiction
Time travel
World government in science fiction

 Source and additional information: Science Fiction