"Science fiction is the characteristic literary genre of the century. It is the genre that stands in opposition to literary modernism." -David G. Hartwell, from the Introduction

First published in hardcover in 1997, The Science Fiction Century was an anthology that defined and explained what we mean when we talk about modern SF. Now it returns to print in an affordable two-volume softcover edition. Here in volume 1, literary names such as Rudyard Kipling and Jack London rub shoulders with genre authors whose pedigrees run back to the 1940s and 50s, including figures such as Hal Clement, John Wyndham, Poul Anderson, Harlan Ellison, Bruce Sterling, James Tiptree, Jr., and Connie Willis. Here is modern science fiction in all its breadth, from the anthologist hailed by John Updike as a "loving expert."