Sci-Fi Chronicles: A Visual History of the Galaxy’s Greatest Science Fiction
Edited by Guy Haley
Foreword by Stephen Baxter
Published by Aurum Press, October 2014
ISBN: 978 1 78131 359 6
576 pages
Review by Mark Yon
It’s nearly that time again: the end of the year and Christmas, which means that, as usual, it’s also the time of arrival of those books that not only read great but look great as well. This is one of them.
The first thing that is noticeable is that this is a mightily heavy book. Whilst the same dimensions as a ‘normal’ hardback, its heavy stock gloss paper and the fact that it is over 500 pages gives the book the heft of a housebrick – over 1.5 kg. With its rather minimal cover, and the red-eye glare of HAL-9000 staring from the cover, it must be said that it is rather – well, monolithic. Part of this may be due to the exemplary standard set by its UK publisher, Aurum Press, who usually publish those books on artists like Hopper and Van Gogh or those “1000 Things You Must Do…” books.
The layout is straightforward, in that we have a chronological order to events, in five chapters. Chapter 1 is from 1818 (Frankenstein) to 1925 and covers the origins of the genre. Chapter 2, from 1920-1950, covers the years of pulp SF in its Golden Age. Chapter 3 is from 1950 to 1970, and deals with the marvels and perils of science in the Atomic Age. Chapter 4 is from 1970 -90 with SF in a darker phase. Lastly, Chapter 5 is from 1990 to the present (or at least to Avatar in 2009 and the game franchises of Halo, Mass Effect and Bioshock).
So far, so good. The layout of the actual chapters is generally in single or double pages, with images across the top of the page, text in the middle and a timeline at the bottom showing the context of the item being discussed. There is a keyword referencing system usually in the top left corner of the page, referencing themes such as ‘Space Opera’, ‘SF Horror’, ‘Steampunk’, ‘Post-Apocalyptic Fiction’, ‘Hard SF’ and ‘Time Travel’. Each chapter has its own contents page too, and there’s a reasonably comprehensive Index at the back.
Though the production of the book is good, it is the contents that are the most impressive. This is clearly a book with a love of the genre, produced by people with a fairly long-standing interest. The editor, Guy Haley, was a member of staff for SFX Magazine and his interest in all aspects of the genre shows here, as well as the fact that most of the other twenty-six contributors are current or ex-SFX staff. As a result, it’s rather like the best edition of that magazine that you could ever create, but from a well-respected art-book publisher.
The text is accessible and yet more thorough than the typical fan puff-piece, although there are times when the categorisation is a little odd – a specific section on Dune, for example, rather than the author Frank Herbert, whilst Gene Wolfe has an author section in the 1970’s when his more famous works (Book of the New Sun etc) are from the 1980’s and the timeline goes to Soldier of Sidon in 2007. Alice Sheldon is referenced as such, without making it easily clear that her pseudonym was ‘James Tiptree Jr’, which many readers will recognise more easily.
In places there are sections that have a little more depth: for example, a double-page spread on the RoboCop franchise covers everything from Robocop (1987) to its remake in 2014. There’s also some nice double-page picture spreads too, with some pleasingly unusual images that are different to the standard pictures given.
What the layout of this book does most as a consequence of its structure is illustrate most the way that the genre has evolved, from magazines to books, comics, television, films and games. My feeling at the end is one of pleasure, that we are now living at a time when SF has never been less global. The future’s bright, folks…
My only quibble with the book (and it is a minor one, totally personal) is having the term ‘sci-fi’ as part of the title. I’ve never really been a fan of the word, but I guess others may have less of an issue than me.
In short, Sci-Fi Chronicles is a great history of the genre, a wonderfully thorough summary of where SF has been and where it is going. It is a great book to dip in and out of and will no doubt create much discussion. Thoroughly recommended, and would make a brilliant present for an SF fan.
Mark Yon, October 2014
