Edited by M. Keith Booker, the James E. and Ellen Wadley Roper Professor of English at the University of Arkansas, this volume in the Critical Insights series addresses the crossover genre of contemporary speculative fiction through a diverse set of texts and through multiple methodologies. For readers who are studying and approaching the genre for the first time, four essays survey the critical conversation regarding speculative fiction, explore its cultural and historical contexts, and offer close and comparative readings of key texts. Readers seeking a deeper understanding of the theme can then move on to other essays that explore it in depth through a variety of critical approaches. Works discussed include Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy, Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game, Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight saga, Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, Nalo Hopkinson’s Midnight Robber, and the Harry Potter series, as well as the works of China Miéville, Lauren Beukes, and Margo Lanagan. Among the contributors are Sarah Margaret Kniesler, Janice M. Bogstad, Peter Dendle, and Justyna Deszcz-Tryhubczak. Rounding out the volume are a list of literary works not mentioned in the book that concern the topic as well as a bibliography of critical sources for readers seeking to study this timeless theme in greater depth.