New Space Opera is a recent subgenre within science fiction that displays a canny engagement with contemporary cultural politics in the age of globalization. This book offers close readings of the evolving canon of the genre to show how its complex political allegories can be seen as a response to the powerful contemporary ideology of neoliberalism and its championing of free-market ideas. A timely look at a branch of science fiction that is deeply engaged with the problems of the present even as it casts its eye to far futures, Science Fiction, New Space Opera, and Neoliberal...

The videogame seriesMass Effectis a remarkable rarity not only for being an original science-fictional franchise of recent vintage that has risen to such prominent commercial and critical success in popular culture but also for pushing the canonical boundaries of how science fiction as a genre will be experienced and understood in the future. This book analyzes the significance of the game for an understanding of the evolving SF genre and articulates an explanatory framework to limn its landmark reception in videogame history. This book both synthesizes the burgeoning body of scholarship...