An invaluable contribution to the serious study of science fiction as well as a highly entertaining collection,
Science Fiction contains 27 chronologically-arranged stories and excerpts, ranging from such early classic works as Swift's
Gulliver's Travels and Shelley's
Frankenstein to recent stories such as Harlan Ellison's "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream" and Ursula K. Le Guin's "Vaster Than Empires and More Slow." Including brief general essays and a separate introduction to each individual story or excerpt, Rabkin's anthology greatly illuminates the evolution of the genre.