Val Nolan - Interzone 303, September 2025
There are no priests here to interpret the holy scriptures for us (not even Christopher Priest who, unusually for a Kincaid project, receives only a few brief mentions). Instead there is just confident dissection of significant interventions into the discourse of speculative writing by a critic whose knowledge of science fiction, particularly historical examples, occasionally verges on the humbling…
Indeed, little encapsulates his approach more than his summation of The History of Science Fiction: ‘On a number of occasions where [Adam] Roberts stands up to be counted, I would be very happy to shoot him down; on just as many occasions I would join him at the barricades’. In that way, and though he has issues with it, Kincaid recognises the undeniable merits of Roberts’s book as an ‘excellent contribution to the ongoing critical debate’ and, as such, this is a fine example of the work presented in Colourfields…
Kincaid makes no claims to be part of the modern intellectual industrial complex. ‘I’m not an academic,’ he says here in acknowledgment rather than declaration, and, honestly, it is for the benefit of all of us that he has not been siloed away in some kind of Mulderesque photocopier lobby in the basement of a regional university spending most of his time on bureaucratic form-filling and Sisyphean marking loads with only an occasional paywalled article to his name. No, Kincaid’s position as adjacent-to-but-outside the academy is, perhaps counterintuitively, a privilege; the freedom from contemporary academia’s reflection-wrecking distractions appears at least partly to be what has allowed him to publish so accessibly and so often, in the process making the kind of contribution to literary criticism that many scholars would be covetous of. And they’d be right to feel envy given that his analysis, his writing style, and the level of his critical engagement – as evidenced not just by Colourfields, but by last year’s volume on Pavane by Keith Roberts – is of a standard that, frankly, is at or beyond a lot of what passes for criticism in the academy these days.
Rupert Loydell - International Times
Nope, that isn’t a typo, this is a book about other writing which takes science fiction as its subject; a critical survey of other books about science fiction. If that sounds too niche then I urge you to put your concerns aside and enjoy the contents, which are a gathering up of short, individual reviews and essays, as ripe for dipping into as consuming from the book’s start to its finish.
Ian Mond - Locus, April 2025
Clear-eyed. That’s how I would describe the work of Paul Kincaid. There are other words I could use: engaging, intelligent, rigorous. All are accurate. But clear-eyed sits at the top of the list. Since first encountering Kincaid’s criticism online over two decades ago (whether on Strange Horizons or, his now-defunct LiveJournal or his current blog ‘‘Through the dark labyrinth’’), what has struck me about Kincaid’s work is his clarity of thought. Each of his reviews, short or long, exemplifies how to build an argument: how to clearly state a premise and work through the reasoning. You may disagree with Kincaid, but if there are any logical fallacies, they won’t be hidden behind jargon or, long, winding sentences, or non sequiturs and digressions – you’ll know exactly how he arrived at his conclusion.
These pieces are, as Kincaid always is, thorough, expert and judicious, generous without sacrificing acuity or judgement, wide-ranging without losing focus. … It seems to me that the critical debates in and around science fiction are vital to the continuing vitality and diversity of the genre. … To that end it’s hard to think of a better account of the state of SF criticism over the last quarter century than this volume.
Nina Allan
Why is it that we are drawn again and again to theorise, proselytise and re-invent the perennial arguments about science fiction? Paul Kincaid is here to help us find out. This is a fascinating and essential volume that every fan and critic will want to read.
Vajra Chandraselera
One of speculative fiction's most erudite critics discusses criticism itself. A refreshingly sophisticated, beautifully grounded analysis of the many histories, definitions, and purposes with which science fiction contends.
Dan Hartland
This is a book for anyone interested not only in science fiction, but in how literature as a whole works - its communities and cross-currents, its contexts and contradictions. What even *is* a literature? You’ll emerge from these writings on the history, nature and character of SF not only with more informed answers to that question - but more exciting ones, too.
Paul March-Russell
As a reviewer, Paul Kincaid is every editor's dream: an author whose work barely needs revision. The clarity of his thought, allied to the precision of his prose, has made him one of the central voices of science fiction criticism. Whether he is addressing the history of the genre, crisscrossing themes, or focusing on particular authors, Kincaid is always authoritative without being pompous, generous without being sentimental. Read this latest collection and then read everything else.