Introduction Rough Guide to a Lonely Planet, from Nemo to Neo, by Mark Bould Part One: Things to come 1. The Anamorphic Estrangements of Science Fiction, by Matthew Beaumont 2. Art as 'The Basic Technique of Life': Utopian Art and Art in Utopia in The Dispossessed and Blue Mars, by William J. Burling 3. Marxism, Cinema and Some Dialectics of Science Fiction and Film Noir, by Carl Freedman 4. Spectacle, Technology and Colonialism in Sf Cinema: The Case of Wim Wenders's Until the End of the World, by John Rieder Part Two: When worlds collide 5. The Singularity is Here, by Steven Shaviro 6. Species and Species Being: Alienated Subjectivity and the Commodification of Animals, by Sherryl Vint 7. Ken MacLeod's Permanent Revolution: Utopian Possible Worlds, History and the Augenblick in the Fall Revolution quartet, by Phillip Wegner Part Three: Back to the future 8. 'Madonna in moon rocket with breeches': Weimar sf film criticism during the stabilisation period, by Iris Luppa 9. The Urban Question in New Wave Sf, by Rob Latham 10. Towards a Revolutionary Science Fiction: Althusser's Critique of Historicity, by Darren Jorgensen 11. Utopia and Science Fiction Revisited, by Andrew Milner Afterword Cognition as Ideology: A Dialectic of Sf Theory, by China Miéville Appendices Left Sf: Selected and annotated, if not always exactly recommended, works Critical and theoretical works About the contributors Index

'This collection marks a red shift in thinking about the history, form, and impact of science fiction literature and film. In robust dialectical manoeuvres, the essays, by a dynamic mix of scholars, simultaneously revive, critique, and transform the vibrant tradition of Marxist sf criticism. The book is a timely, readable, and incisive intervention in contemporary cultural critique'