In Other Worlds: Book summary and reviews of In Other Worlds by Margaret Atwood

In Other Worlds Summary

In Other Worlds: Science Fiction and the Human Imagination is Margaret Atwood's account of her rela­tionship with the literary form we have come to know as science fiction. This relationship has been lifelong, stretch­ing from her days as a child reader in the 1940s through her time as a graduate student at Harvard, where she explored the Victorian ancestors of the form, and continuing with her work as a writer and reviewer. This book brings together her three heretofore unpublished Ellmann Lectures of 2010 - "Flying Rabbits," which begins with Atwood's early rabbit superhero creations and goes on to speculate about masks, capes, weakling alter egos, and Things with Wings; "Burning Bushes," which follows her into Victorian other-lands and beyond; and "Dire Cartographies," which investi­gates utopias and dystopias. In Other Worlds also includes some of Atwood's key reviews and musings about the form, including her elucidation of the differences (as she sees them) between "science fiction" proper and "speculative fiction," as well as "sword and sorcery/fantasy" and "slip­stream fiction." For all readers who have loved The Handmaid's Tale, Oryx and Crake, and The Year of the Flood - not to mention Atwood's 100,000 plus Twitter fol­lowers - In Other Worlds is a must.

In Other Worlds Reviews

"This enjoyable volume, tellingly dedicated to Ursula K. Le Guin, reveals a writer with strong, often fascinating, if idiosyncratic opinions about genre SF." - Publishers Weekly

"Starred Review. A witty, astute collection of essays and lectures on science fiction... wholly satisfying, with plenty of insights for Atwood and sci-fi fans alike." - Kirkus Reviews

"Atwood archly and profoundly delves into her 'lifelong relationship' with science fiction in a collection of glimmering essays." - Booklist

"This amazing woman's voice, this fine writer's constant example, is extraordinary." - Boston Globe

"One of the most intelligent and talented writers to set herself the task of deciphering life in the late twentieth century." - Vogue

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Margaret Atwood Author Biography

Margaret Atwood was born in Ottawa, Ontario, in 1939. She is the daughter of a forest entomologist, and spent part of her early years in the bush of North Quebec. She moved, at the age of seven, to Toronto. She studied at the University of Toronto, then took her masters degree at Radcliffe College, Massachusetts, in 1962.

She is Canada's most eminent novelist and poet, and also writes short stories, critical studies, screenplays, radio scripts and books for children, her works having been translated into over 30 languages. Her reviews and critical articles have appeared in various eminent magazines and she has also edited many books, including The New Oxford Book of Canadian Verse in English (1983) and, with Robert Weaver, The Oxford Book of Canadian...