Science fiction as a vital bridge between technoscience and culture an early warning system a
method for imagining differently. In the new millennium science fiction has moved from the
margins to the mainstream. At the same time it has undergone massive transformations. No
longer can it be derided as indigestible technobabble or escapist trash or a white man’s
playground—not that it ever really was. Sf is rich and diverse serious and fun. A vital
bridge between technoscience and culture it is an early warning system a method for imagining
differently and a way of experiencing our increasingly science-fictional world. It is the
vernacular of the 21st century. This Is Not A Science Fiction Textbook brings together leading
sf scholars including some of the most exciting new critical voices to introduce the genre
for the general reader. Its first part outlines some key ideas used to think about sf such as
Estrangement Extrapolation and Alterity. Its second part maps some of the genre’s global
history from the Enlightenment and European colonialism to Indigenous and African Futurisms.
Its third part surveys sf at the turn of the 2020s organised by concepts movements and new
academic disciplines from Afrofuturism and Animal Studies to Queer Theory and the Weird—and
each chapter whether it is on Climate Fiction or Neurodiversity is accompanied by an
introduction to a major contemporary novel and film.
