Brian W. Aldiss is a prolific, inventive, and highly skilled writer who escapes easy definition. He is still best known as a science-fiction writer and has garnered all the top awards of the genre. He has also produced a substantial corpus of realistic novels, a major history of science fiction, a rich autobiography, a significant travel book, a small but accomplished body of humorous writing, many essays on literary and cultural topics, and a sheaf of poems. Wide sympathies, a vivid awareness of human vulnerability and resilience, and a concern for the future of humanity and the planet inform all his work; he brings to his writing a rich, eclectic cultural and literary knowledge and a readiness to experiment with language, form, and subject matter. His concern with the craft of writing is shown by his readiness to revise his work when it seems necessary in order to...