| Gateways to Forever: The Story of the Science-Fiction Magazines from 1970 to 1980 Contributor(s): Ashley, Mike (Author) |
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ISBN: 1846310024 ISBN-13: 9781846310027 Publisher: Liverpool University Press OUR PRICE: $148.50 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: April 2007 Annotation: In the 1970s science fiction exploded into the popular consciousness, appearing everywhere along the cultural spectrum--from David Bowie's alien stage persona to the massively successful global juggernaut that was "Star Wars," With the American involvement in Vietnam reaching its bitter conclusion, the Apollo moon program ending, and awareness of humanity's destructive impact on the environment increasing, our planet began to seem a smaller, lonelier, more fragile place--and the escapist appeal of science fiction grew. Corresponding with these tumultuous events was a period of significant American economic decline, and, as Mike Ashley shows in "Gateways to Forever," the once-enormously-popular science fiction magazines struggled to survive. The third volume of this award-winning series chronicles the publications' most difficult period so far. The decade began with the death of John Campbell Jr., the man who launched the magazine "Astonishing," and with it science fiction's prominence as a genre. The widespread popularization of sci-fi imagery reflected a newly diversified market--new anthologies, fanzines, role-playing games, comics, and blockbuster films all fought for the attention and money of sci-fi fans. Ashley shows how the traditional magazines coped with these setbacks but also how they, as always, looked to the future, as the decade closed and the earliest precursors to the Internet emerged. Mike Ashley's groundbreaking history is a monument to science fiction's evolution. As the genre continues to infiltrate mainstream literature, "Gateways to Forever" is essential reading for anyone interested in seeing how it all began. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Literary Criticism | Science Fiction & Fantasy |
| Dewey: 823.087 |
| Series: Liverpool University Press - Liverpool Science Fiction Texts |
| Physical Information: 1.3" H x 6.3" W x 9.3" (2.00 lbs) 527 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: This third volume in Mike Ashley's four-volume study of the science-fiction magazines focuses on the turbulent years of the 1970s, when the United States emerged from the Vietnam War into an economic crisis. It saw the end of the Apollo moon programme and the start of the ecology movement. This proved to be one of the most complicated periods for the science-fiction magazines. Not only were they struggling to survive within the economic climate, they also had to cope with the death of the father of modern science fiction, John W. Campbell, Jr., while facing new and potentially threatening opposition. The market for science fiction diversified as never before, with the growth in new anthologies, the emergence of semi-professional magazines, the explosion of science fiction in college, the start of role-playing gaming magazines, underground and adult comics and, with the success of Star Wars, media magazines. This volume explores how the traditional science-fiction magazines coped with this, from the |