Although better known today for such classic and influential science fiction novels as "Last and First Men," "Odd John," "Star Maker" and "Sirius," Olaf Stapledon also wrote eight other science fiction books, seven volumes of philosophy and social criticism, and hundreds of reviews, lectures, and articles. Common to all his works is a moral vision that is characterized by ecstatic joy and revolutionary zeal, though tempered by detachment and skepticism. This is the first book collection of original essays devoted entirely to Stapledon. Where previous critical interpretation has...

One of the most popular, prolific, and important science fiction writers, Robert Silverberg is given penetrating analyses by major scholars and critics of the genre. Extending beyond the conventions of popular culture and pulp science fiction, the seven essayists assess Silverberg's body of work as being manifest of the modernist literary tradition, exploring techniques, such as irony, and themes, such as the fragility of identity, utopia and dystopia, and spirituality and transcendence.

Noted Silverberg scholar Thomas Clareson contributes an overview of Silverberg's literary career...