space epic n.
a subgenre of science fiction featuring adventure-driven plots set in outer space; a work in this genre; cf. space opera n.
SF Criticism
Genre
-
1943
page image
Henry Kuttner
bibliography
It’s a cooperative job…. A gang of bums trying to come back. Even Helsing’s a bum now. He’s been on the Hollywood skids for years. Once a man starts going down there, nobody’ll give him a job. But Dan Helsing’s still a damn good director. His space epics used to raise my hair.
Soldiers of Space in Astonishing Stories Feb. 92/1 -
1947
page image
It seems STF is changing a little lately—as Chad Oliver said not long ago. Our thundering space epics are slowly dwindling, without doubt.
Reward in Startling Stories Sept. 9 (letter) -
1953
L. Sprague de Camp
bibliography
The space-opera and its glorified form, the space-epic, still has many faithful followers.
Science Fiction Handbook 232 -
1957
page image
Ken Slater
bibliography
Charles Eric Maine’s High Vacuum…. As the title suggests, the story is a ‘space’ epic, the first manned moon trip.
Something to Read in Nebula Science Fiction (#25) Oct. 105/1 -
1959 Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction Apr. 41 (editorial introduction to a translation of Anton Chekhov’s The Flying Islands)
page image
The following hilarious parody…purports to be a translation into the Russian of a Jules Verne space epic.
-
1976
Ivor A. Rogers
bibliography
Nowlan, Philip Francis. Armageddon 2419 A.D.…. Better than E. E. Smith’s space epics, the book was far from the lowest common denominator of popular taste and does not deserve the scorn usually accorded it.
The Gernsback Era, 1926–1937: Bibliography in N. Barron Anatomy of Wonder I. iii. 109 -
1995
page image
Robert Silverberg
bibliography
There has always been a place in our field for well-done action-adventure science fiction. I remember fondly the glorious space epics of Leigh Brackett and Poul Anderson and even Ted Sturgeon in the lively magazine Planet Stories of the 1940s.
Gresham’s Law Continued in Asimov’s Science Fiction Mar. 4/2 -
2003
page image
Norman Spinrad
Permanence is another reasonably far future space epic set in quite a different universe than that of Ventus and constructed around an intriguing and, as far as I know, novel astronomical premise.
On Books in Asimov’s Science Fiction Mar. 130/2 -
2021
Villeneuve, the director behind ambitious and cerebral space epics like ‘Arrival’ and ‘Blade Runner 2049’, was not deterred by the wreckage that had come before.
Sequel or No, ‘Dune’ is a Dream for Creators in Chicago Tribune 7 Sept. 10/2
Research requirements
antedating 1943
Earliest cite
Startling Stories
Research History
Fred Galvin submitted a 1953 cite from L. Sprague de Camp's "Science Fiction Handbook".Fred Galvin submitted a 1950 cite from an ad in Astounding.
Fred Galvin submitted a 1943 cite from Henry Kuttner in Astonishing Stories.
Last modified 2022-06-07 14:01:43
In the compilation of some
entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries
in OED.