Trillion Year Spree: The History of Science Fiction

British writer Brian Aldiss is one of the most distinguished authors of SF alive, and combines his enthusiasm for the field with broad knowledge and sophisticated literary taste which causes him to champion authors often ignored by fans and casual readers and to dismiss many popular authors. His survey of the field, in this second edition of what was formerly called Billion Year Spree, is now somewhat dated, but still enormously influential. For those who like intelligent commentary by someone whose thinking is not exclusively focused on SF.