The Illustrated Book of |
Review by |
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Hamlyn, London; 1977 |
January 2003 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Voyages & cities & gadgets The Illustrated Book of Science Fiction Ideas & Dreams is the equally excellent companion volume to David A. Kyle's earlier A Pictorial History of Science Fiction. Like the first volume, Science Fiction Ideas & Dreams is an oversized book, thoroughly illustrated in black-and-white and color. The author here divides the field into ten chapters for basic themes: extraordinary voyages, futuristic cities, gadgets and gimmicks, and so on. Of course there is constant blurring of categories; these are not hard-edged, but allow us to get some kind of conceptual grip on the vast fluid subject of science fiction.
The wonderful color covers and interior black-and-white illustrations that are reproduced are sparkling invitations from the artists to explore further in the writers' strange realms. Artists such as Frank R. Paul and Kelly Freas to Wesso and Dold and many more enliven the pages. Stepping away for perspective, Kyle occasionally quotes or argues with one or another of the critics also, from Kingsley Amis to Damon Knight. A nice contrast of Verne and Wells:
These contrasts still affect science fiction. More importantly, how these strands are mixed in all of us arguably affect how we see the world, how we reason and feel, and how we interact with the world as we see it — and the future as we hope or dread.
I'll put it to you this way: an early confusion connected with this issue of Amazing Stories created a tiny fork in our zone of the timeline, in the universe's spatio-temporal garden of forking paths. Taking the other path with the correct inference about this picture back then, we may have found ourselves on another, superficially very similar timeline — but living in an alternate world in which the glorious visionary science-fiction novelist Edward E. Smith was far more prominent. By the late 1930s this single fact could have changed the whole world's understanding of science fiction — to say the least. I cannot begin to tell you. Back to the book at hand, in our currently-accepted timeline ... It's not possible to cover all of the all-encompassing field of science fiction, which not only makes a grab at understanding the Cosmic All, but continuously is transforming itself even as it looks forward, backward, sidewise and every other way we can think of or dream. But David Kyle shares his wonder and joy and deep appreciation here. If after a session in his book, you want to look up an old science fiction story, or search for one that you haven't seen yet, he's been well justified in writing this survey. You may find that the Weird, Amazing, and Astounding highlights in The Illustrated Book of Science Fiction Ideas & Dreams itself stretch your imagination a bit, toss a few new-to-you ideas into your head, perhaps even lift your own feelings or charm your dreams.
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© 2003 Robert Wilfred Franson |
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