Another excellent overview of the genre. To top it off, he actually covers one of the worst problems in old (and current) SF, and that's the misogynistic tendencies of some of the writers of the genre. Also, he covers several women writers too, especially Ursula LeGuin and Octavia Butler (and yes, I'm going to read her real soon). He also talks about Anne McCaffrey which is a nice change of pace. ( )

Good summary of the science fiction genre..I'm going to have to read some Greg Egan and Kim Stanley Robinson here soon! ( )

The lecturer Professor Michael D.C. Drout is as passionate about science fiction as a pre-teen boy is about sneaking into a theater to see a forbidden sci-fi flick. And that’s what you want in a professor. He is articulate and well-versed in the genre. He divides the material into decades and themes in a way that allows the listener to both digest the voluminous material and see the genre’s progression though history.

You might hope that, as he walks through the decades, Prof. Drout would note one of your favorite authors. Sadly, he may not. He skipped some of mine. But to be fair there are so many science fiction authors that he had to be selective, and he seems to have chosen those that typified subgenres such as cyberpunk and slipstream.

I would have given this lecture series a 5 star rating had it not been his bias and praise for everything progressive. When it came to the Surrealists such as J. G. Ballard, the praise for progressiveness turned my stomach. (J. G. Ballard 's 1973 novel “Crash” is about a group of people who take sexual pleasure from car accidents.) This is twisted an sick.
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I love SF movies, but had never much gotten into SF reading -- except from the soft side. This was very interesting and informative for me. ( )

Drout is extraordinarily engaging. Of course, one of the effects of his engagingness is that you want to drop listening to him and go read one of the books he is discussing so interestingly. ( )