In the literature academia, whether science fiction is a genre was contested and the definition of science fiction has been chaotic for years. Although many scholars attempted to define the nature of science fiction, there are still piecemeal insights and observations either in its theoretical or historical aspects. For a long time, the nature of science fiction has been discussed mostly among literary critics, and seldom do professional writers participate in such a debate. The book Between Science and Society: Charting the Space of Science Fiction, is a centerpiece focusing on inner dialogues among writers of science fiction. By adopting an unorthodox research method, Van Belle interviews twenty-four renowned science fiction writers who represent an extensive scope of sub-genres of science fiction in order to document the perspectives of the writers and construct the mediated space, as the book title suggests, between science and society.
The volume under review...
