What it is we do when we read science fiction

What it is we do when we read science fiction
by Paul Kincaid

Beccon Publications
2008, £15
order here

 Reviews:
Strange Horizons
Blog of the Fallen
Fruitless Recursion
SF Site
Interzone#217
 Science Fiction Studies#108

Locus#569
(by Gary K Wolfe)

Vector#257
(by Adam Roberts) 

Foundation#104
(by Jason W. Ellis)

INTRODUCTION

iii - Acknowledgements

v - Introducing Paul Kincaid - by David Langford

I : THEORY

3 - What it is we do when we read Science Fiction
[first published in Acnestis, March 1996. This revised and considerably expanded version was delivered as a talk at Aussiecon III, the 1999 World Science Fiction Convention, and published in Foundation 78 (Spring 2000)]

13 - On the Origins of Genre
[first published in Extrapolation Vol.44 No.4, Winter 2003; reprinted in Speculations on Speculation: Theories of Science Fiction edited by James Gunn and Matthew Candelaria, Lanham, Maryland, The Scarecrow Press, 2005.]

II : PRACTICE

25 - Anatomising Science Fiction
[review of the second edition of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction edited by Clute & Nicholls, first published in Vector 173, June/July 1993.]

29 - How Hard is SF?
[review of The Ascent of Wonder edited by Hartwell & Cramer, first published in Vector 182, Spring 1995.] 

41 - The New Hard Men of SF
[review of The Hard SF Renaissance edited by Hartwell & Cramer, first published in Vector, May/June 2004.]

49 - Mistah Kurtz, He Dead
[an earlier version of article was delivered as a talk at Intuition, the 1998 British National Science Fiction Convention, and was published in Steam Engine Time 1, April 2000.]

61 - The North-South Continuum
[first published in Steam Engine Time 2, November 2001.]

75 - A Year at its Best?
[review of The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Eighteenth Annual Collection edited by Gardner Dozois, The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror: Fourteenth Annual Collection edited by Datlow & Windling, Year’s Best Fantasy edited by Hartwell & Cramer and Year’s Best SF 6 edited by Hartwell, first published in The New York Review of Science Fiction, February 2002.]

III : CHRISTOPHER PRIEST

89 - Blank pages: Islands and Identity in the Fiction of Christopher Priest
[first published in Christopher Priest: The Interaction edited by Andrew M. Butler, London, The Science Fiction Foundation, 2005]

107 - Mirrors, Doubles, Twins
[first published in two parts in Vector 206, July-August 1999 and Vector 209, January-February 2000.]

129 - "The Discharge"
[first published on the EDSF Project; reprinted in Vector 245, January/February 2005.]

133 - 10/10 May/May: Singling Out the Duplication in The Separation
[paper delivered at Interaction, the 2005 World Science Fiction Convention; published in Steam Engine Time 5, 2006.]

IV : BRITAIN ...

141 - Islomania? Insularity?: The Myth of the Island in British Science Fiction
[first published in Extrapolation, Winter 2007.]

149 - Apres moi . . .
[review of Deluge by Sydney Fowler Wright, first published in Science Fiction Studies 95, March 2005.]

153 - Elegy
[review of The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke, first published in Vector 217, May/June 2001.]

157 - Touching the Earth
[first published in the Programme Book for Speculation, the 1991 British National Science Fiction Convention, then expanded to incorporate material from ‘The Novels of Robert Holdstock,’ Arena SF 9, 1979.]

165 - Inside Chris Evans
[written for the Programme Book for Seacon 03, the British National Science Fiction Convention in 2003.]

173 - The Furies
[previously unpublished, it was intended as the first chapter of a book on Keith Roberts that never happened.]

189 - Maps of a Curious Sort: Landscape in the Fiction of Keith Roberts
[paper delivered at A Celebration of British SF, 2001; published in Foundation 93, Spring 2005.]

197 - In the Pickle Jar: Appleseed or Mimesis
[first published in Polder: A Festschrift for John Clute and Judith Clute edited by Farah Mendlesohn, Baltimore, Old Earth Books, 2006.]

V : ... AND THE WORLD

207 - Secret Maps
[originally published as two separate articles in Foundation 57 (Spring 1993) and Foundation 58 (Summer 1993).]

237 - Exhibits
[a slightly shorter version of this essay appeared in Banana Wings 14, August 1999.]

255 - Entering the Labyrinth
[first published in Vector 205, May/June 1999.]

267 - Emptiness Gets Into You
[review of Fremder, Mr Rinyo-Clacton’s Offer, Angelica’s Grotto and Amaryllis Night and Day by Russell Hoban, first published in The New York Review of Science Fiction, January 2002.]

273 - Forever Haldeman
[previously unpublished review of The Forever War, Forever Free and Forever Peace by Joe Haldeman]

277 - A Mode of Head-on Collision: George Turner's Critical Relationship with Science Fiction
[first published in Science Fiction Studies 100, November 2006.]

291 - Heterotopic Borders
[review of Storming the Reality Studio edited by Larry McCaffery, first published in Vector 169, October/November 1992.]

VI : GENE WOLFE

297 - Images of the Fall
[previously unpublished]

307 - We Joke for Gods
[previously unpublished]

321 - False Dog
[first published in A Fanzine for Pat, 1996.]

325 - Attending Daedalus
[review of Attending Daedalus: Gene Wolfe, Artifice and the Reader by Peter Wright, first published in Foundation 92, Autumn 2004.]

VII : 1 APRIL 1984

331 - By-ways of the Shining Path
[first published in Paperback Inferno 53, dated 1 April 1985.]

VIII : NOTES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY

335 - Notes

339 - Sources

343 - Bibliography

IX : INDEX

351 - Index - compiled by Leigh Kennedy Priest