Defining Genre Literature: The Career of Brian Aldiss

If you've been following along with my column for Kirkus Reviews (and these blog posts), you might have seen me reference one book a lot: Brian Aldiss's Billion Year Spree (or its updated version, Trillion Year Spree.) These two histories are incredibly important in the world of genre history, and I've paged through my copies many, many times. Thus, it was really unfortunate to see Aldiss pass away last month. He's a huge figure within the community, not only as a commentator, but as an author.

He's largely unknown to mainstream audiences, save for the fact that his short story 'Supertoys Last All Summer Long' was adapted into a Steven Spielberg film, A.I. Artificial Intelligence - in my mind, an underrated film about a robotic boy yearning for the love of his mother.

I actually met Aldiss over a decade ago while I studied abroad in England — I attended a literary festival in Oxford, where he and fellow local author Philip Pullman discussed science fiction and fantasy. It was an interesting discussion, and I'm glad that I had the chance to meet him, if briefly.

Go read Defining Genre Literature: The Career of Brian Aldiss over on Kirkus Reviews.