An indispensable resource, this book provides wide coverage on aliens in fiction and popular culture.

The wide impact that the imagined alien has had upon Western culture has not been surveyed before; in many cases the essays in  are the first written on the topic. The book is a compendium of short entries on notable uses of aliens in popular culture across different media and platforms by almost 90 researchers in the field. It covers science fiction from the late nineteenth century into the twenty-first century, including books, films, television, comics, games, and even advertisements.

Individual essays point to the ways in which the imagined alien can be seen as a reflection of different fears and tensions within society, above all in the Anglo-American world. The book additionally provides an overview for context and suggestions for further reading. All varieties of readers will find it to be a comprehensive reference about the extra-terrestrial in popular culture.

• Provides cultural context in introductory essays on some of the key themes and contexts of alien representation
• Covers a broad scope, with more than 130 entries on different topics, and is written by nearly 90 researchers with diverse expertise
• Shows readers the varied ways that imagined aliens have become a part of popular culture
• Presents both familiar topics and more obscure topics in popular culture to provide new scholarship

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