In this important book, Ken Gelder offers a lively, progressive and comprehensive account of popular fiction as a distinctive literary field. Drawing on a wide range of popular novelists, from Sir Walter Scott and Marie Corelli to Ian Fleming, J. K. Rowling and Stephen King, his book describes for the first time how this field works and what its unique features are. In addition, Gelder provides a critical history of three primary genres - romance, crime fiction and science fiction - and looks at … [Read more...]
Popular Fiction: The Logics and Practices of a Literary Field
In this important book, Ken Gelder offers a lively, progressive and comprehensive account of popular fiction as a distinctive literary field. Drawing on a wide range of popular novelists, from Sir Walter Scott and Marie Corelli to Ian Fleming, J. K. Rowling and Stephen King, his book describes for the first time how this field works and what its unique features are. In addition, Gelder provides a critical history of three primary genres - romance, crime fiction and science fiction - and looks at … [Read more...]
by on May 2, 2013
A History of Science Fiction: A Brief Introduction to the Genre, the Books, and the Culture that Defines It
Submarine voyages. Nuclear explosions. Men on the moon. Today they belong to history, but science fiction first brought them to our attention often decades before any actual invention. But this often misunderstood genre does more than predict the future. Foremost, it entertains, but it also changes our perspective, giving us a glimpse of the present we would otherwise miss.This book is a brief introduction to the genre. It provides the history of science fictions five major time periods, and … [Read more...]
by on May 1, 2013
Memoirs of a Byzantine Eunuch: Original Fiction in Paperback
Captured and castrated as a boy, Zeno is sold into slavery in Constantinople. Bought by the greatest scholar of the age, he is soon drawn into a labyrinth of sex, heresy, murder and intrigue. Though the empire is threatened by a heretic uprising and a barbarian invasion, its rulers think only of themselves. In the cruel and glittering city of Constantinople, a ruthless general, a bisexual boy-emperor, a worldly patriarch, a peasant usurper and a half-Viking empress all vie for power. Unknown to … [Read more...]
by on March 28, 2013
THE TRAIN FROM CHICAGO: A Collection of 10 Sudden Fictions
Grandpa rarely phones. When he does, he doesn’t ask to speak to me. I know long distance is expensive. Sometimes my mother sends secret money and there is always a few hundred on Christmases and birthdays. He said the money saves him when he gets behind. He calls her “Mary Quite Contrary.” She calls him “Daddy.” He rarely saw her after his wife caught him with a woman in a Boston bar a week after Mary Quite Contrary’s tenth birthday.Grandpa rarely phones. When he does, he doesn’t … [Read more...]
