Anthony Lioi is Associate Professor of Liberal Arts and English and Director of the Writing and Communication Center at the Juilliard School, New York, USA.

• Introduction 1. Nerd Ecology 2. Stellar Cosmopolitans: Star Trek and a Federation of Species 3. The Destruction of the Sky: Virtual Worlds as Refuge 4. The Great Music: Restoration as Counter-Apocalypse in the Tolkien Legendarium 5. Slayer and Signal: Joss Whedon Versus the Big Bads 6. Icons of Survival: Metahumanism as Planetary Defense Conclusion

Lioi employs an eclectic assembly of critical tools, from semiotics and close reading to critical theory and anthropology ... [He] is to be praised for combining clarity of argument with richly detailed examples.

Anthony Lioi is Associate Professor of Liberal Arts and English and Director of the Writing and Communication Center at the Juilliard School, New York, USA.

• Introduction 1. Nerd Ecology 2. Stellar Cosmopolitans: Star Trek and a Federation of Species 3. The Destruction of the Sky: Virtual Worlds as Refuge 4. The Great Music: Restoration as Counter-Apocalypse in the Tolkien Legendarium 5. Slayer and Signal: Joss Whedon Versus the Big Bads 6. Icons of Survival: Metahumanism as Planetary Defense Conclusion

Lioi employs an eclectic assembly of critical tools, from semiotics and close reading to critical theory and anthropology ... [He] is to be praised for combining clarity of argument with richly detailed examples.

Anthony Lioi is Associate Professor of Liberal Arts and English and Director of the Writing and Communication Center at the Juilliard School, New York, USA.

• Introduction 1. Nerd Ecology 2. Stellar Cosmopolitans: Star Trek and a Federation of Species 3. The Destruction of the Sky: Virtual Worlds as Refuge 4. The Great Music: Restoration as Counter-Apocalypse in the Tolkien Legendarium 5. Slayer and Signal: Joss Whedon Versus the Big Bads 6. Icons of Survival: Metahumanism as Planetary Defense Conclusion

Lioi employs an eclectic assembly of critical tools, from semiotics and close reading to critical theory and anthropology ... [He] is to be praised for combining clarity of argument with richly detailed examples.