The Cambridge Companion to American Science Fiction explores the relationship between the ideas and themes of American science fiction and their roots in the American cultural experience. Science fiction in America has long served to reflect the country's hopes, desires, ambitions, and fears. The ideas and conventions associated with science fiction are pervasive throughout American film and television, comics and visual arts, games and gaming, and fandom, as well as across the culture writ large. Through essays that address not only the history of science fiction in America but also the influence and significance of American science fiction throughout media and fan culture, this companion serves as a key resource for scholars, teachers, students, and fans of science fiction. This Companion explores the relationship between the ideas and themes of American science fiction and their roots in the American cultural experience. Gerry Canavan is Assistant Professor of Twentieth- and Twenty-First-Century Literature at Marquette University. He is the co-editor, with Kim Stanley Robinson, of Green Planets: Ecology and Science Fiction. He has also published articles on race, violence, and utopia in zombie narrative in Extrapolation and Science Fiction Film and Television. Eric Carl Link is Professor of American Literature and Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Memphis. He is the author of several books, including Crosscurrents: Readings in the Disciplines, Understanding Philip K. Dick, The Vast and Terrible Drama: American Literary Naturalism in the Late Nineteenth Century and Neutral Ground: New Traditionalism and the American Romance Controversy. He has also published numerous articles in the field of American literature.