VISIONS OF TOMORROW: Great Science Fiction From the Movies

Don't expect to learn any of the secrets behind the special effects that are the foundation of most sci-fi films; Edelson says nothing about how they're done and doesn't even give the full story behind rocket scientist Hans Oberth's famous collaboration on a German space travel movie. Nor is there more than a perfunctory stab at explaining the ideas of Arthur C. Clarke that lay behind the inscrutable plot of 2001. On the whole, the level of criticism is dismaying (""Perhaps if Verne had lived into the era of modern movies, he could have brought his novels up to date, but we will never know""), but at least this is good humored description -- of the old Flash Gordon type serials (we'd like to see the one where Gene Autry fought the Muranians) and of the best known UFO, doomsday and space travel-inspired epics. All pretty shallow with some minimal sociological commentary to buoy up the plot summaries, but whoever guessed that kids would enjoy reading a little something about Planet of the Apes, Star Trek and their old movie predecessors was a prophet of sorts.