Andrew Gordon has produced an exhaustive investigation of this major part of Spielberg's oeuvre-appreciative but also critical, finding the complexities inside films that superficial critics have dismissed as childish or manipulative. It's very rewarding to mentally rewind and watch them again with Professor Gordon's insights playing along. -- Joe Haldeman, author, The Forever War, Camouflage, and The Accidental Time Machine
This is a highly desirable book on a highly necessary topic. Such a major cultural force requires a major study. Well, here it is... -- Brian Aldiss, author of Super-Toys Last All Summer Long and Other Stories of Future Time (2001)
Eminently readable and including good photographs, references after each chapter, and a detailed index, this book should have a broad readership....Recommended. All readers, all levels. -- . * CHOICE, April 2008, Vol. 45 No. 08 *
Gordon's book is...engagingly written....Gordon seems able effortlessly to transform any Spielberg film into an example of the logic of any particular psychological or psychoanalytical framework he finds at hand-a number of passages would...provide undergraduates with a clear sense of how mutually to understand a theoretical structure and a film narrative. * Science Fiction Film and Television, November 2008 *
Offers the most comprehensive review of the critical receptions and readings of Spielberg's sf, fantasy, and horror films....His chapters can be easily excerpted for film students....Gordon's book is both intelligent and fun to read....It is worth a read. * The Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts *
It was a pleasure to have a 'close encounter' with this take on Spielberg's science fiction and fantasy oeuvre. I simply could not put it down! Gordon's adroit use of insightful research coupled with an engaging, accessible writing style and solid organization makes this book useful to readers who range from the general public to the academic expert to students. In short, Gordon boldly goes where no critic has gone before in relation to Spielberg. -- Marleen S. Barr, author, Oy Pioneer!: A Novel, Feminist Fabulation: Space/Postmodern Fiction, and Lost in Space: Probing Feminist
