FINDING BOOKS ON YOUR TOPIC
A great way to find additional resources for your short reports is to search the Lakeland Catalog and the OhioLINK Catalog.
Lakeland Library has an excellent collection of books on literature, and you will find even more titles relating to fantasy literature by using OhioLINK. You can access the catalogs below on this page or by logging into myLakeland and going to the Library's Home page.
Circulating Books check out for 3 weeks at a time and can be renewed multiple times.
See the "Search Tips" box on this page for ways to make your searches as effective as possible.
Keyword Search Tips:
You can also do a Keyword Search using the name of an author (first name then last name: “Mary Shelley”) or the title of a work (“Brave New World”).
Using Subject Headings:
When you retrieve a catalog record for a book that seems interesting, look at the Subject Headings for that book. The Subject Headings are located in the bibliographic record. You can also find them in database records. Click on a Subject link (in blue) or do a Subject Search on that topic to find more information. The broad subject for science fiction is Science Fiction.
To find information about an author, do a Subject Search by typing in the last name first. For example: gibson, william
To find critical works about science fiction, do a Subject Search by simply typing in the words science fiction.
Contemporary Speculative Fiction by
Speculative fiction has a long and progressive history, from the mythos of J.R.R. tolkien to the radical alternativity of China Miéville and the ecofeminism of Suzanne Collins. the last twenty years has witnessed a surge in its critical reception.
Dystopia by
Great starting point for students seeking an introduction to the theme and the critical discussions surrounding it. The addition of the word ""dystopia"" to our common, everyday vocabulary is indicative of both a dark turn taken by our popular culture, and a broader pessimistic turn in the general mood. As evidenced by the success of dark cinematic visions of the future-from Blade Runner (1982), to the Terminator sequence, to the Matrix trilogy-something in our natures respond to stories based in such visions of the future. The events of recent times -- September 11, 2001 being the most telling example - and their attendant sharpening of focus on such concepts as national security versus the privacy of citizens, have certainly contributed to the pervasive sense of anxiety that seems to have developed in our society, and which seems so readily to find catharsis in dystopian dramas. However, as this volume shows, the concept of dystopia is much older. To be dystopian, a work needs to foreground the oppressive society in which it is set, using that setting as an opportunity to comment in a critical way on some other society, typically that of the author and/or the audience. In other worlds, the bleak dystopian world should encourage the reader or viewer to think critically about it, then to transfer this critical thinking to his or her own world. Edited by M. Keith Booker, Professor of English at the University of Arkansas, this volume in the Critical Insights series presents a variety of new essays on the perennial theme. For readers who are studying it for the first time, a four essays survey the critical conversation regarding the theme, explore its cultural and historical contexts, and offer close and comparative readings of key texts in the genre. Readers seeking a deeper understanding of the theme can then move on to other essays that explore it in depth through a variety of critical approaches to both literature and film. Works discussed include Utopia; Looking Backward; We; Brave New World; Anthem; A Clockwork Orange; Make Room! Make Room!; Fahrenheit 451; Nineteen Eighty-Four; The Handmaid's Tale; and Little Brother. Rounding out the volume are a list of literary works not mentioned in the book that concern the theme of dystopia and as well as a bibliography of critical sources for readers seeking to study this timeless theme in greater depth.
Gothic Science Fiction by
Gothic Science Fiction explores the fascinating world of gothic influenced science fiction. From Frankenstein to Doctor Who and from H.G Wells to Stephen King, the book charts the rise of a genre and follows the descent into darkness that consumes it.
The History of Science Fiction by
This book is the definitive critical history of science fiction. The 2006 first edition of this work traced the development of the genre from Ancient Greece and the European Reformation through to the end of the 20th century. This new 2nd edition has been revised thoroughly and very significantly expanded. An all-new final chapter discusses 21st-century science fiction, and there is new material in every chapter: a wealth of new readings and original research. The author's groundbreaking thesis that science fiction is born out of the 17th-century Reformation is here bolstered with a wide range of new supporting material and many hundreds of 17th- and 18th-century science fiction texts, some of which have never been discussed before. The account of 19th-century science fiction has been expanded, and the various chapters tracing the twentieth-century bring in more writing by women, and science fiction in other media including cinema, TV, comics, fan-culture and other modes.
The Transhuman Antihero by
Advances in science and technology no longer change how we live, they determine it. In the not-too-distant future, techno-scientific developments may make individuals stronger, smarter, healthier and more productive-but to what end? Addressing this question, speculative fiction has created an abundance of transhuman characters, protagonists with extraordinary strength, intelligence or abilities. Often they are antiheroes, openly rejecting-or rejected by-society and acting on immoral or extreme principles that challenge readers to approve, condemn, excuse or explain. This study explores the antihero of speculative fiction as a paradoxical blend of human and transhuman. These protagonists illustrate the dynamics among the individual, techno-scientific development and societal norms, and blur distinctions between human and machine, biology and technology, right and wrong. Fictional works covered include Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818), Olaf Stapledon's Odd John (1935), Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination (1956), William Gibson's Neuromancer (1986), Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' Watchmen (1986-1987), Richard Morgan's Takeshi Kovacs trilogy (Altered Carbon [2002], Broken Angels [2003] and Woken Furies [2005]) and Black Man (2008).
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