Above the Human Landscape: A Social Science Fiction Anthology

by Willis Everett McNelly

Book by McNelly, Willis Everett This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0876200021
• ISBN13: 9780876200025
• Release Date: January 1972
• Publisher: Goodyear Publishing Company
• Length: 387 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.

Customer Reviews

For the very serious sci-fi fan

This anthology of science fiction with profound sociological concepts and predictions buried in it seems, at first reading, to be not too different from any other collection of short sci-fi pieces. In its ordinariness (although most of the stories are excellent) lies its point: the technology in science fiction may be fanciful, the sociology has to be scientific. Every reader of the genre is willing to take a leap of faith about how the world will function in the future but it's a rare reader who will allow a serious discontinuity in the business of human nature. Editor Leon Stover pointed to the real power of seeing below the text in sci-fi. In his discussion of the movie 2001 - A Space Odyssey [Blu-ray] he points out that the last implications of the film lie in the dissolution of technology and the beginnings of a new theology. Right. I said 'theology'. This very provocative book starts with technology, embraces man and then always asks questions about the possibility of the meta-human. If you ever need to prove the utter seriousness of science-fiction to a skeptic, give 'em a copy of this. --Lynn Hoffman, author of the seriously serious bang BANG: A Novel and the delightfully scientific New Short Course in Wine,The