Search Worlds Without End

Between an ancient Roman's trip to the moon and the fantastic tales of H.G. Wells lies a journey through time and space and an awesome evolution in scientific thinking. From Gilgamesh's search for immortality to Lucian's odyssey on the moon; from Jonathan Swift's hilarious satire on scientists in Gulliver's Travels to Mary Shelley's horrifying description of a scientist who has gone too far in Frankenstein from Edgar Allan Poe's balloon trip in the year 2848 to Jules Verne's prophesies of the impact of scientific inventions on future civilization; from Edward Bellamy's utopian escape from the industrial Revolution to H.G. Wells's magnificent story of Earth threatened by an inescapable menace-here are the chief ancestors of the modern science fiction story. For the first time, these and other key works are gathered together in one anthology, complete with revealing commentary on the authors, their eras, and the role each played in establishing what we today recognize as science fiction. The Road to Science Fiction is a six-volume anthology of science fiction that covers the development of science fiction from its earliest prototypes in the Sumerian Gilgamesh and the Greek epics to approximately 1990. Created originally to provide anthologies for use in classes, these volumes have become mass-market sellers as well, since they are not only a source of outstanding stories but also explain what constitutes science fiction, how it developed and the contribution the authors and the stories have made to the evolution of science fiction.

Table of Contents

• Introduction (The Road to Science Fiction #1) - essay by James E. Gunn
• The First Voyage to the Moon - essay by James E. Gunn
• A True Story (excerpt) - (1965) - shortfiction by Lucian of Samosata
• Strange Creatures and Far Traveling - essay by James E. Gunn
• The Voyages and Travels of Sir John Mandeville (excerpt, chap XVIII-XIX) - (1950) - shortfiction by Anonymous
• The Good Place That is No Place - essay by James E. Gunn
• Utopia (book II) (excerpt) - (1516) - shortfiction by Sir Thomas More
• The New Science and the Old Religion - essay by James E. Gunn
• The City of the Sun (excerpt) - (1923) - shortfiction by Tommaso Campanella
• Experience, Experiment, and the Battle for Men's Minds - essay by James E. Gunn
• The New Atlantis (excerpt) - (1627) - shortfiction by Francis Bacon
• A New Look at the Heavens and Another Trip to the Moon - essay by James E. Gunn
• Somnium, or Lunar Astronomy - (1634) - shortstory by Johannes Kepler
• Commuting to the Moon - essay by James E. Gunn
• From A Voyage to the Moon - (1657) - shortfiction by Cyrano de Bergerac
• The Age of Reason and the Voice of Dissent - essay by James E. Gunn
• A Voyage to Laputa (chapters I-VI of Gulliver's Travels) - (1926) - shortfiction by Jonathan Swift
• Imaginary Voyages in the Other Direction - essay by James E. Gunn
• The Journey to the World Underground (excerpt chap. I) - (1941) - shortfiction by Ludvig Holberg
• Science and Literature: When Worlds Collide - essay by James E. Gunn
• Frankenstein (excerpt chap 5 and 10) - (1818) - shortfiction by Mary Shelley
• Science as Symbol - essay by James E. Gunn
• Rappaccini's Daughter - [Rappaccini - 1] - (1844) - novelette by Nathaniel Hawthorne
• Anticipations of the Future - essay by James E. Gunn
• Mellonta Tauta - (1849) - shortstory by Edgar Allan Poe
• Expanding the Vision - essay by James E. Gunn
• The Diamond Lens - (1858) - novelette by Fitz-James O'Brien
• The Indispensable Frenchman - essay by James E. Gunn
• Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (excerpt chap. X-XII) - (1869) - shortfiction by Jules Verne
• Around the Moon (excerpt, chaps. XVII-XVIII) - (1870) - shortfiction by Jules Verne
• Lost Civilizations and Ancient Knowledge - essay by James E. Gunn
• She (excerpt, chaps. XXIV-XXV) - (1886) - shortfiction by H. Rider Haggard
• The New Frontier - essay by James E. Gunn
• Looking Backward, 2000-1887 (excerpt, chaps. 1-5) - (1888) - shortfiction by Edward Bellamy
• New Magazines, New Readers, New Writers - essay by James E. Gunn
• The Damned Thing - (1893) - shortstory by Ambrose Bierce
• A Flying Start - essay by James E. Gunn
• With the Night Mail - (1905) - novelette by Rudyard Kipling
• The Father of Modern Science Fiction - essay by James E. Gunn
• The Star - (1897) - shortstory by H. G. Wells
• A Selected Bibliography of Books About Science Fiction - essay by James E. Gunn
• A Basic Science-Fiction Library - essay by James E. Gunn

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (1979) - essay by James E. Gunn
• Science: The New Accelerator - essay by James E. Gunn
• The New Accelerator - (1901) - shortstory by H. G. Wells
• The Literary Dissent - essay by James E. Gunn
• The Machine Stops - (1909) - novelette by E. M. Forster
• Island in the Sky, or Romance Triumphant - essay by James E. Gunn
• The Chessmen of Mars (chap. 2-3) (Excerpt) - (1922) - shortfiction by Edgar Rice Burroughs
• More Things Under Heaven and Earth - essay by James E. Gunn
• The People of the Pit - (1918) - shortstory by A. Merritt
• The Call of the Fantastic - essay by James E. Gunn
• The Red One - (1918) - novelette by Jack London
• The Horror Out of Providence - essay by James E. Gunn
• Dagon - (1919) - shortstory by H. P. Lovecraft
• The Science-Fiction Magazine Begins It's Amazing Career - essay by James E. Gunn
• The Tissue-Culture King - (1926) - shortstory by Julian Huxley
• Pedestrian Words, Soaring Concepts - essay by James E. Gunn
• The Revolt of the Pedestrians - (1928) - shortstory by David H. Keller, M.D.
• The Philosopher of Time and Space - essay by James E. Gunn
• Last and First Men (excerpt, chap. XIII) - (1930) - shortfiction by Olaf Stapledon
• Ford's in His Flivver - essay by James E. Gunn
• Brave New World (chapters 16-17) - (1932) - shortfiction by Aldous Huxley
• The Alien from Milwaukee - essay by James E. Gunn
• A Martian Odyssey - (1934) - novelette by Stanley G. Weinbaum
• Who Went There? - essay by James E. Gunn
• Twilight - (1934) - shortstory by John W. Campbell, Jr.
• The Idea Machine - essay by James E. Gunn
• Proxima Centauri - (1935) - novella by Murray Leinster
• The World-Wrecker on Mars - essay by James E. Gunn
• What's It Like Out There? - (1952) - novelette by Edmond Hamilton
• The Legion of Science Fiction - essay by James E. Gunn
• With Folded Hands... - [Humanoids] - (1947) - novelette by Jack Williamson
• Mission of Levity - essay by James E. Gunn
• Hyperpilosity - (1938) - shortstory by L. Sprague de Camp
• The Alchemists Gather - essay by James E. Gunn
• The Faithful - (1938) - shortstory by Lester del Rey
• The Fairy Tales of Science - essay by James E. Gunn
• Black Destroyer - [Space Beagle] - (1939) - novelette by A. E. van Vogt
• The Stars Appear - essay by James E. Gunn
• Nightfall - (1941) - novelette by Isaac Asimov
• The Man Who Sold the Genre - essay by James E. Gunn
• Requiem - [D. D. Harriman] - (1940) - shortstory by Robert A. Heinlein
• A Chronology of Science Fiction - (1979) - essay by uncredited

Table of Contents:

• On the Road to Science Fiction: From Heinlein to Here - (1979) - essay by James E. Gunn
• "All You Zombies--" - (1959) - shortstory by Robert A. Heinlein
• Reason - (1941) - shortstory by Isaac Asimov
• Desertion - (1944) - shortstory by Clifford D. Simak
• Mimsy Were the Borogoves - (1943) - novelette by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore
• The Million-Year Picnic - (1946) - shortstory by Ray Bradbury
• Thunder and Roses - (1947) - novelette by Theodore Sturgeon
• That Only a Mother - (1948) - shortstory by Judith Merril
• Brooklyn Project - (1948) - shortstory by William Tenn
• Coming Attraction - (1950) - shortstory by Fritz Leiber
• The Sentinel - (1951) - shortstory by Arthur C. Clarke
• Sail On! Sail On! - (1952) - shortstory by Philip José Farmer
• Critical Factor - (1953) - shortstory by Hal Clement
• Fondly Fahrenheit - (1954) - novelette by Alfred Bester
• The Cold Equations - (1954) - novelette by Tom Godwin
• The Game of Rat and Dragon - (1955) - shortstory by Cordwainer Smith
• Pilgrimage to Earth - (1956) - shortstory by Robert Sheckley
• Who Can Replace a Man? - (1958) - shortstory by Brian W. Aldiss
• Harrison Bergeron - (1961) - shortstory by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
• The Streets of Ashkelon - (1962) - shortstory by Harry Harrison
• The Terminal Beach - (1964) - novelette by J. G. Ballard
• Dolphin's Way - (1964) - shortstory by Gordon R. Dickson
• Slow Tuesday Night - (1965) - shortstory by R. A. Lafferty
• Day Million - (1966) - shortstory by Frederik Pohl
• We Can Remember It for You Wholesale - (1966) - novelette by Philip K. Dick
• I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream - (1967) - shortstory by Harlan Ellison
• Aye, and Gomorrah... - (1967) - shortstory by Samuel R. Delany
• The Jigsaw Man - (1967) - shortstory by Larry Niven
• Kyrie - (1968) - shortstory by Poul Anderson
• Masks - (1968) - shortstory by Damon Knight
• Stand on Zanzibar (excerpt) - shortfiction by John Brunner
• The Big Flash - (1969) - novelette by Norman Spinrad
• Sundance - (1969) - shortstory by Robert Silverberg
• The Left Hand of Darkness (excerpt) - shortfiction by Ursula K. Le Guin
• When It Changed - (1972) - shortstory by Joanna Russ
• The Engine at Heartspring's Center - (1974) - shortstory by Roger Zelazny
• Tricentennial - (1976) - shortstory by Joe Haldeman
• Index (The Road to Science Fiction #3) - (1979) - essay by uncredited

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by James E. Gunn
• Born of Skill and Money - essay by James E. Gunn
• Born of Man and Woman - (1950) - shortstory by Richard Matheson
• Word Magic - essay by James E. Gunn
• My Boy Friend's Name Is Jello - (1954) - shortstory by Avram Davidson
• A Canticle for the Fifties - essay by James E. Gunn
• The First Canticle - (1955) - novelette by Walter M. Miller, Jr.
• The Lodestone Genre - essay by James E. Gunn
• Nobody Bothers Gus - (1955) - shortstory by Algis Budrys
• Inferiority: The Complex Problem - essay by James E. Gunn
• Flowers for Algernon - (1959) - novelette by Daniel Keyes
• A Question of Identity - essay by James E. Gunn
• The Moon Moth - (1961) - novelette by Jack Vance
• The View from Outside - essay by James E. Gunn
• The Library of Babel - (1962) - shortstory by Jorge Luís Borges
• Inner Concerns in Outer Space - essay by James E. Gunn
• From Dune - shortfiction by Frank Herbert
• The Vigor of Traditional SF - essay by James E. Gunn
• Light of Other Days - (1966) - shortstory by Bob Shaw
• Ambiguities and Inscrutabilities - essay by James E. Gunn
• The First Sally (A), or Trurl's Electronic Bard - (1974) - shortstory by Stanislaw Lem
• Entropy and the World View - essay by James E. Gunn
• The Heat Death of the Universe - (1967) - shortstory by Pamela Zoline
• Speculations on Speculative Fiction - essay by James E. Gunn
• The Planners - (1968) - shortstory by Kate Wilhelm
• The Alienness of the Alien - essay by James E. Gunn
• The Dance of the Changer and the Three - (1968) - shortstory by Terry Carr
• The Virtues of Indirection - essay by James E. Gunn
• The Last Flight of Dr. Ain - (1969) - shortstory by James Tiptree, Jr.
• Radical Sensibility - essay by James E. Gunn
• Where No Sun Shines - (1970) - shortstory by Gardner Dozois
• Escape Reading - essay by James E. Gunn
• The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories - (1970) - shortstory by Gene Wolfe
• Understanding Reader Reaction - essay by James E. Gunn
• Angouleme - (1971) - shortstory by Thomas M. Disch
• The Postwar Generation - essay by James E. Gunn
• Gather Blue Roses - (1972) - shortstory by Pamela Sargent
• The Star Trek Synrome - essay by James E. Gunn
• With a Finger in My I - (1972) - shortstory by David Gerrold
• The Real and the Surreal - essay by James E. Gunn
• The Ghost Writer - (1973) - shortstory by George Alec Effinger
• Of Men, and Women, and Society - essay by James E. Gunn
• Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand - (1973) - novelette by Vonda N. McIntyre
• Of Novas and Other Stars - essay by James E. Gunn
• Air Raid - (1977) - shortstory by John Varley
• Science Fiction, Aliens, and Alienation - essay by James E. Gunn
• Uncoupling - (1975) - shortstory by Barry N. Malzberg
• Exotic Parables - essay by James E. Gunn
• Rogue Tomato - (1975) - shortstory by Michael Bishop
• The Labor Day Group - essay by James E. Gunn
• This Tower of Ashes - (1976) - shortstory by George R. R. Martin
• Fiction and Science - essay by James E. Gunn
• Particle Theory - (1977) - shortstory by Edward Bryant
• The Anthropology of the Future - essay by James E. Gunn
• View from a Height - (1978) - shortstory by Joan D. Vinge
• Form and Content - essay by James E. Gunn
• The Word Sweep - (1979) - shortstory by George Zebrowski
• Dialectic of History and Transcendence - essay by James E. Gunn
• The World Science Fiction Convention of 2080 - (1980) - shortstory by Ian Watson
• Estranging the Everyday - essay by James E. Gunn
• Abominable - (1980) - shortstory by Carol Emshwiller
• Science and Fiction - essay by James E. Gunn
• Exposures - (1981) - shortstory by Gregory Benford

Table of Contents:

• Preface - essay by James E. Gunn
• Introduction - essay by James E. Gunn
• Beginnings: From Frankenstein to Dorking - essay by James E. Gunn
• From "The Battle of Dorking: Reminiscences of a Volunteer" (excerpt) - (1871) - shortfiction by George Tomkyns Chesney
• A Matter of Perspective - essay by James E. Gunn
• From "Flatland" (excerpt) - (1884) - shortfiction by Edwin A. Abbott
• The Craving for Catastrophe - essay by James E. Gunn
• After London (excerpt) - (1885) - shortfiction by Richard Jefferies
• The Medium and the Message - essay by James E. Gunn
• The Doom of London - (1892) - shortstory by Robert Barr
• Fin de Siècle - essay by James E. Gunn
• A Corner in Lightning - (1898) - shortstory by George Griffith
• The Man Who Invented Tomorrow - essay by James E. Gunn
• The Country of the Blind - (1904) - novelette by H. G. Wells
• Currents in the Mainstream - essay by James E. Gunn
• As Easy as A.B.C. - (1912) - novelette by Rudyard Kipling
• MacDonough's Song - (1912) - poem by Rudyard Kipling
• The Great War and Its Aftermath - essay by James E. Gunn
• A Negligible Experiment - (1921) - shortstory by J. D. Beresford
• More Things in Heaven and Earth - essay by James E. Gunn
• The Horror of the Heights - (1913) - shortstory by Arthur Conan Doyle
• Before the Crash - essay by James E. Gunn
• The Rat - (1929) - shortstory by S. Fowler Wright
• Looking Outward - essay by James E. Gunn
• From "Star Maker" (excerpt) - (1937) - shortfiction by Olaf Stapledon
• The American Lodestone - essay by James E. Gunn
• The Great Fog - (1944) - shortstory by Gerald Heard
• The Postwar Explosion - essay by James E. Gunn
• Hobbyist - (1947) - novelette by Eric Frank Russell
• Meteors and Other Stars - essay by James E. Gunn
• Dreams Are Sacred - (1948) - novelette by Peter Phillips
• The Prolific Fifties - essay by James E. Gunn
• Made in U.S.A. - (1953) - novelette by J. T. McIntosh
• Transit of Clarke - essay by James E. Gunn
• The Star - (1955) - shortstory by Arthur C. Clarke
• The Day of the Wyndhams - essay by James E. Gunn
• The Emptiness of Space: The Asteroids A.D. 2194 - (1960) - shortstory by John Wyndham
• The Universe Considered as a Concentration Camp - essay by James E. Gunn
• The Voices of Time - (1960) - novelette by J. G. Ballard
• The Drowned Giant - (1964) - shortstory by J. G. Ballard
• Stand on Metaphor - essay by James E. Gunn
• The Totally Rich - (1963) - novelette by John Brunner
• New Worlds, New Waves, New Options - essay by James E. Gunn
• Mouth of Hell - (1966) - shortstory by David I. Masson
• The Discontinuous D. G. Compton - essay by James E. Gunn
• It's Smart to Have an English Address - (1967) - shortstory by D. G. Compton
• More Things in Heaven and Earth [#2] - essay by James E. Gunn
• The Muse - (1968) - shortstory by Anthony Burgess
• The Neptune of the New Wave - essay by James E. Gunn
• The Nature of the Catastrophe - (1970) - shortstory by Michael Moorcock
• The Human Side of Change - essay by James E. Gunn
• The Happiest Day of Your Life - (1970) - shortstory by Bob Shaw
• Breaking into the Club - essay by James E. Gunn
• The Power of Time - (1971) - novelette by Josephine Saxton
• New Maps and Old Waves - essay by James E. Gunn
• Mason's Life - (1972) - shortstory by Kingsley Amis
• The God Question - essay by James E. Gunn
• Settling the World - (1975) - shortstory by M. John Harrison
• Putting It All Together - essay by James E. Gunn
• Working in the Spaceship Yards - (1969) - shortstory by Brian W. Aldiss
• Appearance of Life - (1976) - shortstory by Brian W. Aldiss
• Images and Icons - essay by James E. Gunn
• An Infinite Summer - (1976) - novelette by Christopher Priest
• Alien Relations - essay by James E. Gunn
• Custom Fitting - (1976) - novelette by James White
• Sex and Fantasy - essay by James E. Gunn
• Written in Water - (1982) - shortstory by Tanith Lee
• Transcending Generalities - essay by James E. Gunn
• The Great Atlantic Swimming Race - (1986) - shortstory by Ian Watson
• The Romance of Science Fiction - essay by James E. Gunn
• And He Not Busy Being Born - (1986) - shortstory by Brian Stableford

Table of Contents:

• Preface - essay by James E. Gunn
• Introduction - essay by James E. Gunn
• France - essay by James E. Gunn
• Exploring Worlds Known and Unknown - essay by James E. Gunn
• Journey to the Center of the Earth (excerpt) - (1998) - shortfiction by Jules Verne
• Visualizing the Future - essay by James E. Gunn
• The War of the Twentieth Century - shortstory by Albert Robida (trans. of La Guerre au vingtième siècle 1887)
• Quest for the Right Stuff - essay by James E. Gunn
• Another World - (1962) - novelette by J. H. Rosny aîné (trans. of Un autre monde 1895)
• The Short, Happy Life of a Surreal 'Pataphysician - essay by James E. Gunn
• The Dead Fish - (1955) - shortstory by Boris Vian (trans. of Les Poissons Morts 1943)
• An Alien Behind the Wine Bottle - essay by James E. Gunn
• Heavier Than Sleep - (1979) - shortstory by Philippe Curval (trans. of Plus Lourd Que le Sommeil)
• The Temptations of the SF Polymath - essay by James E. Gunn
• The Valley of the Echoes - (1998) - shortstory by Gérard Klein (trans. of La vallée des échos 1959)
• The French Voice of North America - essay by James E. Gunn
• The Knot - (1993) - shortstory by Élisabeth Vonarburg (trans. of Le noeud 1980)
• Germany - essay by James E. Gunn
• Creating a Genre - essay by James E. Gunn
• The Sandman - (1943) - novelette by E. T. A. Hoffmann (trans. of Der Sandmann 1816)
• The Father of German Science Fiction - essay by James E. Gunn
• The Universal Library - (1958) - shortstory by Kurd Lasswitz (trans. of Die Universalbibliothek 1904)
• The Influence of Literature - essay by James E. Gunn
• The Hunter Gracchus - (1946) - shortstory by Franz Kafka (trans. of Der Jäger Gracchus 1931)
• The Austrian Connection - essay by James E. Gunn
• The Building - (1998) - shortstory by Herbert W. Franke (trans. of Das Gebäude 1960)
• The Power of the Press - essay by James E. Gunn
• Loitering at Death's Door - (1991) - novelette by Wolfgang Jeschke (trans. of Nekromanteion 1985)
• The Meaning of Walls - essay by James E. Gunn
• Ikaros - shortstory by Erik Simon (trans. of Wissenswertes über den Planeten Ikaros 1976)
• Scandinavia and Finland - essay by James E. Gunn
• Experiment in Denmark - essay by James E. Gunn
• Mnemsyne's Children - (1984) - shortstory by Svend Åge Madsen
• Fantastic Sweden - essay by James E. Gunn
• Time Everlasting - (1986) - shortstory by Sam Lundwall
• Eastern Europe - essay by James E. Gunn
• The Man Who Invented the "Robot" - essay by James E. Gunn
• R. U. R. Epilogue - (1921) - shortstory by Karel Capek
• The Polish Master - essay by James E. Gunn
• The Hunt - [Pilot Pirx (Pirx the Pilot)] - (1977) - novelette by Stanislaw Lem (trans. of Polowanie 1965)
• Medical Report - essay by James E. Gunn
• The Divided Carla - (1986) - novelette by Josef Nesvadba (trans. of Rozštepená Karla 1985)
• Political Writing - essay by James E. Gunn
• That Invincible Human Spirit, Or, The Golden Ships - shortstory by Alexandr Kramer
• The Romanian Exception - essay by James E. Gunn
• The Neuhof Treaty - (unknown) - shortstory by Ovid S. Crohmalniceanu
• Russia - essay by James E. Gunn
• The Brothers Strugatski - essay by James E. Gunn
• The Strangers - novelette by Arkady Strugatsky and Boris Strugatsky (trans. of ????? 1958)
• Adventure and Science Fiction - essay by James E. Gunn
• Share It With Me - (1979) - shortstory by Kir Bulychev
• Italy - essay by James E. Gunn
• The Everyday and the Fantastic - essay by James E. Gunn
• The Time Machine - (1954) - shortstory by Dino Buzzati
• Surprising Realms and Forbidden Kingdoms - essay by James E. Gunn
• Cancerqueen - (1950) - novelette by Tommaso Landolfi
• Fables for Our Time - essay by James E. Gunn
• The Spiral - (1968) - shortstory by Italo Calvino (trans. of La spirale 1965)
• Spain and Latin America - essay by James E. Gunn
• Here There Be Tygers - (1979) - essay by James E. Gunn
• The Alabaster Garden - (1979) - shortstory by Teresa Inglés (trans. of El Jardin de Alabastro 1977)
• The Magician of Magic Realism - essay by James E. Gunn
• The Babylon Lottery - (1959) - shortstory by Jorge Luís Borges (trans. of La lotería en Babilonia 1941)
• Miracles in Colombia - essay by James E. Gunn
• Blacaman the Good, Vendor of Miracles - (1971) - shortstory by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (trans. of Blacaman el Bueno, vendedor de milagros)
• The Past, the Present, and the Future - essay by James E. Gunn
• Chac-Mool - (1973) - shortstory by Carlos Fuentes
• India - essay by James E. Gunn
• The Marathi Experience - essay by James E. Gunn
• Einstein the Second - (1989) - shortstory by Laxman Londhe
• China - essay by James E. Gunn
• The Chinese Pioneer - essay by James E. Gunn
• The Mirror Image of the Earth - (1986) - shortstory by Zheng Wenguang
• The Professional Writer in China - essay by James E. Gunn
• Corrosion - (1981) - novelette by Ye Yonglie (trans. of Fushi)
• Japan - essay by James E. Gunn
• Author in the Dunes - essay by James E. Gunn
• Beyond the Curve - (1966) - novelette by Kobo Abe
• The Japanese Robert Heinlein - essay by James E. Gunn
• Take Your Choice - (1987) - shortstory by Sakyo Komatsu
• From Western Trash to Japanese Origami - essay by James E. Gunn
• The Legend of the Paper Spaceship - (1978) - novelette by Tetsu Yano
• Appendix: US SF and Us - essay by Élisabeth Vonarburg