Rating: 
Summary: Awesome, Incredible - Science Fiction History at it's best!
Review: All color. All under one set of covers. Extremely well done. Not indepth, but written from the insiders viewpoint. Hard to be indepth without removing too many illustrations, as this is an art book first and foremost. I am prejudiced since I helped in it's production, but I can tell you, you won't be dissapointed.
Rating:
Summary: Worth 60 Bucks and Then Some....
Review: Although I'm not an expert on science fiction,I'm hoping to learn more about the genre so I can figure out what is best to invest time in reading, having already read Dune, Lord of the Rings, H.G.Wells, Jules Verne and some of the other basics. Buying this book was in part motivated by my desire to seek out some context and history of the vast sci-fi universe. The other motivation is that I collect particularly high-quality and esoteric art books and the other reviewers described the book as possibly meeting that criteria.Having just received the book earlier today let me emphatically express that this is a fantastic work, beautifully illustrated, meticulously manufactured, and what I've read is very well written. This book emanates the kind of vital and exciting energy that I find to be most compelling in a "coffee table book." It really rouses interest in the subject matter it presents. I've checked out other coffee table books on sci-fi, and some have looked good but none come close to this.
Rating: 
Summary: Sciende-Fiction of the 20th Century--revisited
Review: Booklist has hung me out to dry before so their negative comments on the text of "Science Fiction of the 20th Century" are not surprising. But there are dozens of books available on the literary development of science fiction available at your local library. For an art book devoted to the covers of science-fiction magazines and books and movie posters--the marketing arm of publishing and film making--it's not surprising that the text accompanying them should be devoted, at least in part, to the commerce of the field and how it grew. "In part" because much of the text is culled from extensive interviews (probably the MOST extensive) with authors Robert Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke, long personal and professional relationships with many of the other authors, years of writing and submitting stories and novels in the field, plus working as an emplopyee at some of them. Included is an article by Harlan Ellison describing what it was like to be a young SF writer during the boom of the '50s. Anybody who doesn't think that commerce plays a major role in the development of most literary and visual genre lacks both perspective and wisdom. It may be dull to some, fascinating to others, but I think I delivered on what I promised in the Introduction--snapshots of events and the people who created an enormously popular genre. It would have been impossible to do a standard history in the space allotted and I admitted as much at the very start. I'm pleased the reviewer liked the images--I located and chose every one of them. (Authors of art books frequently do far more than write text and captions.) I'm enormously proud of the book, which probably accounts for my being overly-sensitive to negative comments. The resulting book is unlike anything you've seen before--or are likely to see again. It's a triumph not only of content but of book manufacture. It was blessed with a hugely talented designer (Mike Graziolo of Drive Communciations) and a publisher (Richard Perry of Collectors Press) willing to take enormous risks-- totally unlike the bean counters of most modern publishing companies who have so little faith in their own judgment they base all future decisions on the printouts from the chains on the sales of their last book. "Science Fiction of the 20th century" may bore some--but I don't think so. Take a look at it. Then go for it!
Rating:
Summary: Wonderfully complete coverage of the genre
Review: I must admit that I'm prejudice in favor of this wonderful book. You see, back in the 1970's, I worked for a new Science Fiction magazine that was just starting up. It was entitled "Vertex". Frank Robinson not only covers my magazine, he gives it almost two pages of coverage. And his coverage of the magazine is so perceptive and accurate as well. I was the "lead illustrator" of "Vertex" for quite a few issues and loved working on it. The team of people who worked on the magazine were wonderful and the writers we had were among the best in the Science Fiction field at the time. As fate would have it, "Vertex" was not able to survive up to the late 1970's and the "Star Wars" era -- had we lasted that long I think the magazine would still be around today and be considered one of the best in Science Fiction. But, instead, as Frank Robinson details in the book, "Vertex" was lost due to various corporate cost saving reasons, plus the "paper crisis" of the '70's in publishing. This is a beautiful book, so full of information, details, art and is a great reference source. If you love Science Fiction, you will love this book. Thank you Frank for a fabulous book. Rodger MacGowan rbmstudio@aol.com
Rating:
Summary: Wonderfully complete coverage of the genre
Review: I must admit that I'm prejudice in favor of this wonderful book. You see, back in the 1970's, I worked for a new Science Fiction magazine that was just starting up. It was entitled "Vertex". Frank Robinson not only covers my magazine, he gives it almost two pages of coverage. And his coverage of the magazine is so perceptive and accurate as well. I was the "lead illustrator" of "Vertex" for quite a few issues and loved working on it. The team of people who worked on the magazine were wonderful and the writers we had were among the best in the Science Fiction field at the time. As fate would have it, "Vertex" was not able to survive up to the late 1970's and the "Star Wars" era -- had we lasted that long I think the magazine would still be around today and be considered one of the best in Science Fiction. But, instead, as Frank Robinson details in the book, "Vertex" was lost due to various corporate cost saving reasons, plus the "paper crisis" of the '70's in publishing. This is a beautiful book, so full of information, details, art and is a great reference source. If you love Science Fiction, you will love this book. Thank you Frank for a fabulous book. Rodger MacGowan rbmstudio@aol.com
Rating:
Summary: WONDERFUL Scrapbook of SF history
Review: I'll be honest; when I first saw this book in a local store I wasn't sure I wanted it. It's very heavy (about 10-15 pounds) and expensive (about $60), but I sprang for it because I love SF and I wanted to see what a writer who loves it too had to say.
Frank Robinson is a dedicated writer, fan and historian. Not as dry as John Clute, but not as irreverent as Harlan Ellison, Robinson shows his love by sharing some truly amazing and wide-ranging materials dating from as far back as the 1890s.
A good, friendly companion if you want to take a SF literature course, or if you just want to sit down for a few weeks and read. HIGHLY recommended.
Rating:
Summary: WONDERFUL Scrapbook of SF history
Review: I'll be honest; when I first saw this book in a local store I wasn't sure I wanted it. It's very heavy (about 10-15 pounds) and expensive (about $60), but I sprang for it because I love SF and I wanted to see what a writer who loves it too had to say.
Frank Robinson is a dedicated writer, fan and historian. Not as dry as John Clute, but not as irreverent as Harlan Ellison, Robinson shows his love by sharing some truly amazing and wide-ranging materials dating from as far back as the 1890s.
A good, friendly companion if you want to take a SF literature course, or if you just want to sit down for a few weeks and read. HIGHLY recommended.
Rating:
Summary: The most gorgeous book I have ever seen!
Review: In all my years as a bookseller I have never come across a book like this one. The images fly off the pages at you. The text, although lacking "story telling" which I love, is a condensed history with fact after fact after fact. A super library book. I also got the limited editon which came in a cool box with warning yellow and black stripes. It's cloth covered with an inset print--an old-world style seen little today probably due to expense. For the money I highly recommend it. Both editions are incredible! Don't pass up this book.
Rating:
Summary: Science Fiction of the 20th Century
Review: Science Fiction of the 20th Century Author: FrankM. Robinson This fascinating book is 100 percent sciencefiction/fantasy memories. I was especially intrigued because it was a birthday gift from my son, and I was one of the writers for Weird Tales magazine and a Brown University veteran-student during the late 1940's. Superb Magazine Cover Photos. At first, I did a lot of skimming and admiring the book covers, but I recommend you read the book in chronological order, from beginning to end. Robinson's Science Fiction of the 20th Century is thoroughly researched and very well written. Delightfully, exciting and wonderfully informative, Robinson's book contains hundreds of superb, full-color photographs of science fiction and fantasy magazine covers, (wherever did they find them? and they are printed even sharper and more brilliant than when new!). You will enjoy the beautiful, digitally-created science fictions pulp covers, many enlarged two times actual dimensions. (The average size of early pulp magazines was 6"x8", but they varied, depending on the availability of paper stock during four wars and the fluctuating prices of the pulp paper.) Writers of Yesterday Science Fiction of the 20th Century dates from the beginning of science fiction and fantasy genre, to the present revival in books, TV, Movies and Magazines! The author, Frank M. Robinson gives fascinating and informative data on science fiction writers of past and present. He even reports that Hugh Heffner of Playboy fame, was a sci-fi addict. Playboy magazine has published outstanding science fiction stories and authors, such as Arthur C. Clarke and Ray Bradbury. Final Notes Robinson's book gave me an exhaustive, warm and nostalgic visit to fond friends, illustrations, covers, and writers of yesterday, and today. Robinson's book even stimulated me to forage in my attic where I found a treasure chest of dozens of stories that I had written and published decades ago. I typed them into my computer, formatted them, edited, and now have a new book titled, Really Weird Weird Tales!, a compilation of science fiction and fantasy stories for a huge market, now reborn.
Rating: 
Summary: visually great, slightly self-serving
Review: The book is a lavish, beautifully put-together work, with plenty of big colorful reproductions of classic pulp and contemporary cover art. There are a few mistakes (no, Cronenberg didn't direct the original Vincent Price version of 'The Fly'), but there's really one simple reason why I couldn't bring myself to give this book a 5-star recommendation. After having read it from cover to cover, there was a slight bad taste left in my mouth. Why? Because the author/editor, James M. Robinson, seemed a bit too relentless in his attempts to establish his own reputation and history in the field. Now I've read a LOT of science fiction in my time, but before I picked up this book I'd never even heard of James Robinson. So I was surprised by how often I came across reproductions of his book covers and/or mentions of his work. And they weren't presented in any sort of a 'personal note' type of format, nor do the captions for the illustrations even identify that the person who wrote the book being shown is the same as the editor who chose to include the image in this history. Rather, in most cases, you'll see Robinson's work discussed from the same third-person perspective as the other important works that surround it. This even extends, in one case, to including the work of another minor author apparently because it affords the opportunity to mention the fact that they'd collaborated with Robinson on OTHER projects. A quick count reveals cover reproductions of three of Robinson's novels (i.e. ALL of his science-fiction novels - he wrote a couple of techno-thrillers as well), a reproduction of a movie poster for a film based on one of those novels, and about five other mentions of his work in the text. A few of these would be fine - and the reproduction of one of his self-produced fanzines from the 1940's is a nice piece of nostalgia that certainly establishes his love of the genre. But it really felt like Robinson is trying to present himself as one of the more significant contributors to the genre. Personally, I just don't feel that Frank M. Robinson's fiction should be discussed more often than the work of Poul Anderson, or Robert Bloch, or Hal Clement, or Lester Del Rey or (to move to the end of the alphabet) Jack Vance or Gene Wolfe or Roger Zelazny. (Strangely enough, if you look up Frank M. Robinson in the index at the back of the book, he's not even listed. (Perhaps to make comparisons like this one a bit harder to do? Or maybe it's just sloppy indexing - SPIDER Robinson isn't listed in the index either, yet he's mentioned at least three times in the body of the book). At any rate, it really IS a beautiful book, and if you love this stuff as much as I do then you won't be disappointed by the overall package. It's just too bad that an editor somewhere didn't make an attempt to curb the author's self-promotion a little bit.
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