?James Gunn's writing has bridged much of the history of modern science fiction, and his scholarship has helped to define it, but this memoir offers much more than a history of his career. It is full of insights and delights, nine decades' worth: a grounded life spent exploring humanity's future in the stars. - Kij Johnson, The University of Kansas
Star-Begotten is a heartfelt, revealing, and surprising memoir, but it is more than that. It is a book that tells the story of modern science fiction from the Golden Age to the 21st century, and of its transformation from 'pulp' literature into the preeminent creative genre of popular culture - as seen through the eyes of an author who has not only been a witness to that transformation, but who has been one of its driving forces. As a writer, teacher, and scholar of science fiction whose work has spanned seven decades, James Gunn's influence in the field is unparalleled. His own transformation from ordinary child of the Midwest to Grand Master of Science Fiction is both remarkable and inspiring, and Star-Begotten reveals the love of family, the societal turmoil, the devotion to teaching and writing, and the personal determination and persistence that made it happen. Thousands of Professor Gunn's readers and students have reaped the benefits, and I am beyond fortunate to count myself among them. And everyone who reads the amazing story of Star-Begotten will feel the same way. - Bradley Denton, Buddy Holly Is Alive and Well on Ganymede (winner, John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel)
It is a privilege to read Star-Begotten, a book that is so many different things at once. It's a memoir but it's also an eyewitness account of how America progressed through the 20th century, always toward an uncertain future. For that alone, it's invaluable. It's also an eyewitness account of how science fiction found itself and came of age, by one of its most important writers and educators, and that makes it even more invaluable. The history of science fiction is the history of the human imagination, in which we can discern our hopes, our ambitions, our goals, and, yes, our fears, too. As science fiction came of age, it was unfairly derided as trivial, an element of popular culture that is especially disposable, unfit for the same kind of consideration as 'real' literature. James Gunn was one of the few university professors who defied this literary snobbery not only by teaching a course in science fiction but by instituting the first university program for the teaching of science fiction. - Patricia Cadigan Synners and Fools (winners, Arthur C. Clarke Award)
'Let's save the world through science fiction,' James Gunn suggests to us, and Star-Begotten is the story of his life. Gunn, the only person ever to serve as president of both the Science Fiction Writers of America and the Science Fiction Research Association, has lived science fiction as a reader, a writer, an editor, a scholar, a teacher, a spokesperson, an organizer, a role model, and a visionary. Star-Begotten is full of profiles of people who made 20th century science fiction, but more than that, I am struck by the journey it takes from the early 1920s in Kansas City through a century of change. Gunn brings us the reality of a life lived, day by day, in a time in which human history has been transformed by technological change, ideological conflict, scientific and political and cultural revolutions - the very stuff of science fiction. His story made me think, and made me feel, and I am glad he has taken the time to tell us these things. - John Kessel, NC State University.
