This booklet discusses the development of science fiction, tracing its origins to the time of the industrial revolution. Many of the people of this time realized that life was changing and would continue to change, that there were new forces at work in the world, and that humankind should exercise some forethought about the direction in which change was going. Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" is often thought of as the first science fiction novel. Other writers discussed include Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Fitz-James O'Brien, Jules Verne, and H.G. Wells. In 1926, Hugo Gernsback founded the first science fiction magazine, called "Amazing Stories." The state of science fiction today is also discussed, as well as science fiction and the movies, the possibilities of science fiction, the readers of science fiction, and the different perspectives of science fiction. (TS)