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sfian's review
informative
medium-paced
3.0
I can only speculate on what I, as a twelve-year-old already well on the path of a lifetime love of science fiction, bought this book as a Christmas present by my gran, thought of the text. I suspect that I spent more time poring over the illustrations (perhaps one on page 135 more than any other) than I did reading the book.
Now, over forty years later, re-reading it I found that text dry and if not dense than certainly not engaging. I frequently had to revisit passages as I had list concentration during them. Of course, written in the 70s, the style is different to that of today - sort of "stuffy", like comparing a newsreader from the time with one of today - which may explain my difficulties.
There is also a lack of detail, especially new-to-me insights but, again, I'm a lot older and have read a lot more about SF than I had when this was first published, so it is unfair to criticise a book published nearly fifty years ago for not being new.
The illustrations, though, are spectacular. At times you get the feeling that the author is curating a Frank R Paul retrospective - his illustrations are used more than any other artist - but amongst the others are examples from the obvious and not-so-obvious sources.
This would have been a decent history of science fiction up until the late 70s. Now it serves as an historical curiosity itself. And that's not meant to be a criticism.
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