Visions of the Third Millennium: Black Science Fiction Novelists Write the Future

by Sandra M. Grayson

In Visions of the Third Millenium, Sandra Grayson analyzes how writers of African descent use the codes of science fiction to explore race and gender, myth and language, slavery and freedom, alienation and difference. Focusing on established and relatively new writers such as Octavia E. Butler, Samuel R. Delany, Steven Barnes, and Nalo Hopkinson, Grayson’s groundbreaking study is concerned with how black science fiction writers interweave the memories of enslaved Africans in their works, revealing journeys in time through Africa that are both metaphorical and literal in their span of physical space, traditional beliefs, and African history. By simultaneously looking back and forward in their novels, the writers reflect a construction of time as a pendulum moving in patterns of recurrence that represent inseparability among the past, present, and future. Grayson argues that these black science fiction writers call for positive activism and encourage the reader to reconsider the myth of individualism that is especially pervasive in North American society and to conceptualize a society that recognizes and appreciates all nations and people as connected to a larger global community. Refreshingly original, this book highlights the importance of black science fiction writers and marks another significant contribution to scholarship by Grayson.

142 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2002

Reviews

[Morgan · Rating 1 out of 5]

So. Many. Typos. So. Many. Errors. And this was written by my current African American lit professor!

Seriously, skip this. It's very heavy on summary, light on analysis, and the analysis that is provided is mostly from other scholars. This is also an example of "scholarship" where the author is attempting to cram everything she knows about the subject into a book, but the result is a really fast look at Black sci fi novelists.

The whole book is 132 pages. That includes: the notes, conclusion, bibliography, and 9 chapters. Clearly, this book lacks depth. No offense to Dr. Grayson, but there's other, better scholarship available.