You know what you're in for as soon as you see the big-headed evil alien clutching a helpless, scantily clad girl on the cover. Mr. Sci-Fi himself, Forrest J. Ackerman, takes you on a tour of all the cool movies, terrific books, and strange stuff that makes up our favorite genre. From the heady early days of sparking rockets and threatening Martians to today's dystopian futures and strong female leads, we're treated to a fun (and funny) overview of science fiction film and television, illustrated profusely with photos from the author's vast and famous collection of memorabilia. A hall of fame introduces the writers who started it all, and a cook's tour of the old pulp magazines of the '30s, '40s, and '50s is enough to make us nostalgic for the days before industrial light and magic. This is a lighthearted, very personal reference that deserves a place on the shelf of pop-culture sci-fi fans.

From Booklist
Few adolescent males of the 1960s were immune to the creepy, punning charms of Famous Monsters of Filmland. Ackerman, the magazine's editor, houses a 300,000-item collection of fantasy memorabilia in his Hollywood "Ackermansion," and he has raided it for this elaborate, nostalgic scrapbook on the history of horror's slightly more mature cousin, science fiction. With 300 mostly color photos and evocative commentary by "4SJ" himself, the volume traces sf's development from Verne and Wells (Ackerman actually met and befriended the latter) to the pulp magazines to genre masters like Asimov and Bradbury. Plenty of attention is lavished, of course, on big-and small-screen sf, from Melies' three-minute Trip to the Moon (1899) to Star Wars and The X-Files. Di Fate's Infinite Worlds offered a tonier look at sf art, but Ackerman gives us the collection that appeals to the inner 12-year-old boy in readers of all ages and both genders. Gordon Flagg

Analog, Tom Easton
Overall, the pictures dominate the text and give the book its great strength as a visual tour of SF's past and a survey of the changes it has undergone.

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