Science fiction has recently been identified as providing the narrative paradigm for postmodernity. This volume of essays combines theoretical discussions of the nature of science fiction, with specific studies of utopian and dystopian narratives. Alongside of this, the essays here address feminist and African American issues, the envisioning of radical alternative realities and futures, cyborgs, cyberpunk and cyber-space, age and aging, hybridity and monstrosity, and contemporary society and the postmodern condition.