The tumultuous 1960s was a watershed decade for American science fiction. As the nation raced to the moon, acknowledged masters from the genre's "golden age" reached the height of their powers. As it confronted calls for civil rights and countercultural revolution, a "new wave" of brilliant young voices emerged, upending the genre's "pulp" conventions with newfound literary sophistication; female, queer, and nonwhite authors broke into the ranks of SF writers, introducing provocative new protagonists and themes. Here, in a deluxe, two-volume collector's set, editor Gary K. Wolfe gathers eight wildly inventive novels, the decade's best- Daniel Keyes' beloved Flowers for Algernon and Poul Anderson's madcap The High Crusade; Clifford D. Simak's Hugo Award-winning Way Station; Roger Zelazny's post-apocalyptic . . . And Call Me Conrad (previously published as This Immortal); Joanna Russ' Picnic on Paradise, a pioneering work of feminist SF, and Samuel R. Delany's proto-cyberpunk space opera Nova; R.A. Lafferty's quirky, neglected, utterly original Past Master; and Jack Vance's haunting Emphyrio.
The tumultuous 1960s was a watershed decade for American science fiction. As the nation raced to the moon, acknowledged masters from the genre's "golden age" reached the height of their powers. As it confronted calls for civil rights and countercultural revolution, a "new wave" of brilliant young voices emerged, upending the genre's "pulp" conventions with newfound literary sophistication; female, queer, and nonwhite authors broke into the ranks of SF writers, introducing provocative new protagonists and themes. Here, in a deluxe, two-volume collector's set, editor Gary K. Wolfe gathers eight wildly inventive novels, the decade's best- Daniel Keyes' beloved Flowers for Algernon and Poul Anderson's madcap The High Crusade; Clifford D. Simak's Hugo Award-winning Way Station; Roger Zelazny's post-apocalyptic . . . And Call Me Conrad (previously published as This Immortal); Joanna Russ' Picnic on Paradise, a pioneering work of feminist SF, and Samuel R. Delany's proto-cyberpunk space opera Nova; R.A. Lafferty's quirky, neglected, utterly original Past Master; and Jack Vance's haunting Emphyrio.
Author Biography:
Gary K. Wolfe is Emeritus Professor of Humanities at Roosevelt University and the author, most recently, of Evaporating Genres- Essays on Fantastic Literature and Sightings- Reviews 2002-2006. He has received numerous awards for his critical writing including the British Science Fiction Association Award, the Pilgrim Award from the Science Fiction Research Association, the Distinguished Scholarship Award from the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts, and the World Fantasy Award. He writes regular review columns for Locus magazine and the Chicago Tribune, and co-hosts with Jonathan Strahan the Hugo-nominated Coode Street Podcast.
