From the classic low-budget, space exploration Flash Gordon tales of the Saturday matinee serials to the slick, CGI-realized world of The Matrix, science-fiction films have long been pushing the boundaries of the visually and dramatically fantastic--turning the known world on its head, playing with the laws of physics, and all the while holding their audience spellbound. The Science Fiction Universe...and Beyond offers a breadth of knowledge, insight, and passion to a century of close encounters, black holes, time-travel, dodgy outfits, distant planets, impossible quests, nuclear war, futuristic technology, inexplicable forces, spaceships, extraordinary monsters, and subterranean societies. The Science Fiction Universe...and Beyond is a celebration of all things related to the extraordinary, and tells the story of the entertainment - be it books, television shows, or movies--that has kept us questioning exactly just what is out there. This captivating book is a collection of sci-fi related material for fans of all types, be they lifelong die-hard Trekkies or average Joes obsessed with Lost.Whether a fan of time-travel movies, alien invasion, or space opera battles of epic proportion, The Science Fiction Universe...and Beyond should find a central spot on your coffee table. Certainly it is a volume no fan of television, pop culture, or cinema can afford to be without. So, put your helmet on, grab that blaster - set for stun, of course - and take a trip down old lightspeed lane and prepare yourself to witness the evolution of sci-fi as we know it.