Sf in Dimension: A Book of Explorations

by Alexei Panshin, Cory Panshin

Panshin, Alexei, Panshin, Cory

Genres: Literary Criticism, Science Fiction, Lit Crit

414 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1976

About the author

Alexis Adams Panshin is an American author and science fiction critic.

Reviews

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kind of a curio now, like a lot of 'early' sf review collections. This is a fix-up of reviews and other articles from the early '80s, obsesses with science fiction and how it had changed since the early 60s and even 30s, times as distant from the writing of this book as it is from now. Worth reading, though the predictions of the future of sf are pretty hard to evaluate at this date because so much has happened. Still, coverage of Heinlein's unfortunate The Number of the Beast is good, and they blame it for killing sf (not in so direct a way, but still). If you're interested in the history of sf, from a writer who clearly knows his stuff, it's a worthy read. (Panshin passed away, alas, as I was reading his Heinlein book shortly before I read this one.)

[Steve LaForest · Rating 2 out of 5]

A non- fiction book about SF; publ. 1976, mostly a series of re-published magazine articles. Some bits good, a significant amount of drivel.

The book by James Gunn, which I read around the same time, is vastly better,