Adam Roberts is Professor of Nineteenth-century Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London, UK. He is also the author of more than a dozen science fiction novels: his most recent, Jack Glass (2012) won the BSFA and Campbell awards for the year's best science fiction novel. He has published a number of critical and academic works on science fiction, 19th-century and other topics.

• Preface to Second Edition.- Preface to First Edition (2006).- 1. Definitions.- 2. SF and the Ancient Novel.- 3. From Medieval Romance to Sixteenth-Century Utopia.- 4. 17th-Century SF.- 5. 18th-Century SF. Big, Little.- 6. Early 19th Century SF.- 7. SF 1850-1900: Mobility and Mobilisation.- 8. Verne and Wells.- 9. The Early Twentieth Century, 1: High Modernist SF.- 10. The Early Twentieth Century, 2: The Pulps.- 11. Golden Age SF: 1940-1960.- 12. The Impact of the New Wave: SF of the 1960s and  1970s.- 13. SF Screen Media, 1960-2000: Hollywood Cinema and TV.- 14. Prose SF of the 1980s and 1990s.- 15. Late 20th Century SF: Multimedia, Visual SF and Others.- 16. 21st Century Science Fiction.- Notes.- Bibliography.- Index.-