Science Fiction (SF) suggests a hybrid form of novel, partaking of both ordinary fiction and elements of science. One of the unacknowledged pleasures of reading SF is that it challenges readers to decide whether what they are reading is within the bounds of the possible. The degree of a willing suspension of disbelief varies from one novel to another.

In its initial phase, SF was criticised as a brash, emotionally dry, and a commercial form which appeared in pulp magazines but today it is an established genre of fiction. Readers from different spheres of life are turning to it as an important “sign of times”. The supreme blend of fantasy and reality as exhibited by H.G. Wells is luring more and more readers.

The purpose of Science Fiction: Fantasy and Reality is to explore the relationship between fantasy and reality in the major British SF from 1890 to 1970 in their diverse manifestations. An attempt has been made to find answers to the following key questions: (1) Why does a writer create fantasy? (2) How does a writer make fantasy acceptable to the readers? and (3) What is a writer’s approach to reality? In answering these questions, the works of major SF writers like H.G. Wells, Olaf Stapledon, Aldous Huxley, George Orwell and Arthur C. Clarke among others have been analysed.

The book will prove extremely useful to the students and teachers of SF and researchers in this field.