Science fiction

Science fiction, literary genre based on speculation about scientific or social development. With the works of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, science fiction broke from supernatural fantasy. In the United States in the 1920s “pulp” magazines popularized but all too often debased the form. John W. Campbell's magazine Astounding (founded 1937, now called Analog) revitalized the genre through its consistently high literary standards; it nurtured writers who today lead the field, among them Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Poul Anderson, Hal Clement, and Eric Frank Russell. Many science fiction writers, such as Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Ray Bradbury, Kurt Vonnegut, and John Wyndham, are well known outside the field. The critical acclaim they and writers no less accomplished but less well known receive indicates that the best science fiction may be considered to rank with the best contemporary general fiction.