Introduction 10
1. Ancient Myth & Legend
Anonymous: The Epic of Gilgamesh, c.1750 BCE 16
Homer: The Odyssey, c.725-675 BCE 18
Ovid: Metamorphoses, c.8 22
Anonymous: Beowulf, c.700-1100 28
Anonymous: The Thousand and One Nights, c.700-947 30
Anonymous: The Mabinogion, 12th-14th century 34
The Prose Edda, c.1220
by Snorri Sturluson 36
The Divine Comedy, c.1308-21
by Dante Alighieri 40
Le Morte d'Arthur, 1485
by Thomas Malory 44
Orlando Furioso, c.1516/32
by Ludovico Ariosto 48
Utopia, 1516
by Thomas More 52
The Faerie Queene, 1590-1609
by Edmund Spenser 54
Journey to the West (Xiyouji), c.1592
by Wu Cheng'En 58
The City of the Sun, 1602
by Tommaso Campanella 60
Don Quixote, 1605/15
by Miguel De Cervantes 62
The Tempest, 1611
by William Shakespeare 64
A Voyage to the Moon, 1657
by Cyrano De Bergerac 68
The Description of a New World, called The Blazing-World, 1666
by Margaret Cavendish 70
2. Science & Romanticism
Gulliver's Travels, 1726
by Jonathan Swift 74
The Journey of Niels Klim to the World Underground, 1741
by Ludvig Holberg 78
The Water-Babies: A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby, 1863
by Charles Kingsley 80
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, 1865
by Lewis Carroll 82
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, 1870
by Jules Verne 88
Erewhon, 1872
by Samuel Butler 94
The Ring of the Nibelung, 1876
by Richard Wagner 96
Treasure Island, 1883
by Robert Louis Stevenson 100
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions, 1884
by Edwin A. Abbott 104
Looking Backward: 2000-1887, 1888
by Edward Bellamy 106
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, 1889
by Mark Twain 108
The Time Machine, 1895
by H. G. Wells 110
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, 1900
by L. Frank Baum 116
3. Golden Age of Fantasy
Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, 1906
by J. M. Barrie 124
The Lost World, 1912
by Arthur Conan Doyle 130
At the Earths Core, 1914
by Edgar Rice Burroughs 132
Herland, 1915
by Charlotte Perkins Gilman 134
Tales of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie: Their Adventures Wonderful, 1918
by Cecilia May Gibbs 136
We, 1924
by Yevgeny Zamyatin 138
The Castle, 1926
by Franz Kafka 140
The Cthulhu Mythos, 1928-37
by H. P. Lovecraft 144
Brave New World, 1932
by Aldous Huxley 148
Conan the Barbarian, 1932-36
by Robert E. Howard 154
Alamut, 1938
by Vladimir Bartol 156
Tlón, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius, 1941
by Jorge Luis Borges 158
Islandia, 1942
by Austin Tappan Wright 162
The Little Prince, 1943
by Antoine De Saint-Exupéry 164
The Moomins and the Great Flood, 1945
by Tove Jansson 166
4. New World Order
Gormenghast, 1946-59
by Mervyn Peake 170
Nineteen Eighty-Four, 1949
by George Orwell 174
The Chronicles of Narnia, 1950-56
by C. S. Lewis 178
I, Robot, 1950
by Isaac Asimov 184
Fahrenheit 451, 1953
by Ray Bradbury 186
The Lord of the Rings, 1954-55
by J. R. R. Tolkien 188
Pedro Páramo, 1955
by Juan Rulfo 192
Solaris, 1961
by Stanislaw Lem 194
A Clockwork Orange, 1962
by Anthony Burgess 196
Pale Fire, 1962
by Vladimir Nabokov 198
Planet of the Apes, 1963
by Pierre Boulle 200
One Hundred Years of Solitude, 1967
by Gabriel García Márquez 204
A Wizard of Earthsea, 1968
by Ursula K. Le Guin 206
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, 1968
by Philip K. Dick 208
The Last Unicorn, 1968
by Peter S. Beagle 210
Slaughterhouse-Five, 1969
by Kurt Vonnegut 212
Ringworld, 1970
by Larry Niven 214
Invisible Cities, 1972
by Italo Calvino 216
The Princess Bride, 1973
by William Goldman 218
Dhalgren, 1975
by Samuel R. Delany 220
W or the Memory of Childhood, 1975
by Georges Perec 222
Egalia's Daughters: A Satire of the Sexes, 1977
by Gerd Mjøen Brantenberg 224
The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories, 1979
by Angela Carter 226
Kindred, 1979
by Octavia E. Butler 230
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, 1979
by Douglas Adams 232
5. The Computer Age
The Dark Tower series, 1982-2012
by Stephen King 238
The Discworld series, 1983-2015
by Terry Pratchett 240
Neuromancer, 1984
by William Gibson 244
The Handmaid's Tale, 1985
by Margaret Atwood 248
The Culture series, 1987-2012
by Iain M. Banks 252
Obabakoak, 1988
by Bernardo Atxaga 254
The Sandman, 1988-2015
by Neil Gaiman et al 256
Snow Crash, 1992
by Neal Stephenson 258
The Giver, 1993
by Lois Lowry 260
His Dark Materials, 1995-2000
by Philip Pullman 262
A Game of Thrones, 1996
by George R. R. Martin 264
Infinite lest, 1996
by David Foster Wallace 268
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 1997
by J. K. Rowling 272
The Bas-Lag cycle, 2000-04
by China Miéville 276
The Eyre Affair, 2001
by Jasper Fforde 282
Inkheart, 2003
by Cornelia Funke 284
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, 2004
by Susanna Clarke 286
Cloud Atlas, 2004
by David Mitchell 288
Never Let Me Go, 2005
by Kazuo Ishiguro 290
Wizard of the Crow, 2006
by Ngügi Wa Thiong'O 292
The Yiddish Policemen's Union, 2007
by Michael Chabon 294
The Hunger Games, 2008
by Suzanne Collins 296
1Q84, 2009-10
by Haruki Murakami 298
The Man with the Compound Eyes, 2011
by Wu Ming-Yi 302
The Imperial Radch trilogy, 2013-15
by Ann Leckie 304
Lagoon, 2014
by Nnedi Okopafor 306
Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights, 2015
by Salman Rushdie 308
Contributor Biographies 310
Index 314
Credits 318