Deconstructing the Starships

Deconstructing the Starships: Science, Fiction and Reality is a 1999 collection of essays and criticism by Gwyneth Jones.

Editions

• 1999: Liverpool University Press, ISBN 0-85323-793-X (pbk), ISBN 0-85323-783-2 (hard), viii+221pp, cover by Clive Allan)

Contents

• vii Foreword

I

All Science is Description, pp. 1-2

• Introduction: Deconstructing the Starships, pp. 3-8 (originally text of address at Arthur C. Clarke Award presentation, London, June 1988)
• Getting Rid of the Brand Names, pp. 9-21 (first published in The World and I, October 1987 (Washington Times))
• The Lady and the Scientists, pp. 22-34 (originally published in Strange Plasma #3; from a paper at Preston Speculative Fiction Group, 1990)
• Dreamer: An Exercise in Extrapolation 1989-2019, pp. 35-59 (article commissioned as ‘Dreamer 1’ and ‘Dreamer 2’ for British Telecom thinktank; project organised by Brian Stableford)
• My Crazy Uncles: C. S. Lewis and Tolkien as Writers for Children, pp. 60-74 (article published in The New York Review of Science Fiction Nov ’95; originally as paper read at C S Lewis Society in June 1994)

II

Science, Fiction and Reality

• Fools: The Neuroscience of Cyberspace, pp. 77-90 (originally as paper read at conference at University of Teesside, April 1995; and subsequently in The Governance of Cyberspace, ed., Brian Loader, Routledge, 1997)
• Trouble (Living in the Machine), pp. 91-98 (originally a paper (subtitled ‘The Revolt Against the Physical in Cyberspace Fiction’) read at University of Sussex, May 1994)
• Sex: The Brains of Female Hyena Twins, pp. 99-107 (article originally read at Reading University, October (December?) 1994; subsequently published in Strange Attractors (ed, Mark Bould), and in Foundation #63)
• Aliens in the Fourth Dimension, pp. 108-120 (article originally read at University of Liverpool, July 1996)

III

The Reviews

• 123 • In the Chinks of the World Machine: Sarah Lefanu on Feminist SF • Gwyneth Jones • br Foundation #42 [Sarah Lefanu]
• "Consider Her Ways: The Fiction of C. J. Cherryh", pp. 131-140 (orig. published in Foundation #48 or #49 (1990), pp. 79)
• Alien Sex: Ellen Datlow’s Overview of the SF Orgasm, pp. 141-145 (book review, originally published in The New York Review of Science Fiction #27)
• The Boys Who Want to be with the Boys: Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash, pp. 146-152 (book review originally published in The New York Review of Science Fiction #48)
• Glory Season: David Brin’s Feminist Utopia, pp. 153-155 (book review published in Science Fiction Eye #12)
• Virtual Light: A Shocking Dose of Comfort and Joy from William Gibson, pp. 156-160 (book review published in Foundation #60)
• Return to the Age of Wonder: John Barnes’s A Million Open Doors, pp. 161-167 (book review published in Foundation #59)
• Winterlong: Elizabeth Hand at the End of the World, pp. 168-177 (book review published in Science Fiction Eye #13)
• Plague of Angels: The Fiction of Sheri Tepper, pp. 178-183 (book review published in Foundation #63)
• The Furies: Suzy Charnas Beyond the Edge of the World, pp. 184-191 (book review originally published in The New York Review of Science Fiction #68)
• Alien Influences: Kristine Kathryn Rusch In The Dark, pp. 192-198 (book review originally published in Foundation #65)
• No Man’s Land: Feminised Landscapes in the Utopian Fiction of Ursula Le Guin, pp. 199-208 (paper read at conference at University of London, March 1996).

• Notes, pp. 209-212
• Bibliography, pp. 213-221