In the first decades of the twenty-first century, science fiction literature has been transformed in many ways, as the genre has reacted to the dominating influence of films, television, and video games, the growing popularity of fantasy, the rise of young adult science fiction and graphic novels, the impact of the internet and social media, and the increasing diversity of the authors, characters, and often non-Western settings.

The essays making up this volume address these and other changes in two ways. Some consider new critical approaches to science fiction in response to changing circumstances, including analyses of how evolutionary psychology explains today's science fiction, the emerging subgenre of "cli-fi" exploring the effects of climate change, the use of science fiction in different areas of the college curriculum, and a statistical method for identifying works of science fiction. Others examine significant new authors such as Nalo Hopkinson, Charles Stross, Paolo Bacigalupi, Suzanne Collins, Mira Grant, John Sandford, and David Mura. Contributors include science fiction author Howard V. Hendrix and experts in the fields of Chinese studies, gender studies, literature, philosophy, and religion.