Wars We Never Fought: Armed Conflict in Speculative Fiction

A collection of essays examining how armed conflict functions as a subject, theme, metaphor, symbol, or plot device in popular works of speculative fiction, including novels, films, television, and video games.

Speculative fiction – genres such as science fiction, fantasy, utopian/dystopian, apocalyptic/post—apocalyptic, supernatural, horror, superhero, and alternative history – is, at this particular cultural moment, incontrovertibly popular. Despite the fact that war and its social, cultur...