This book addresses Suzanne Collins's work from a number of literary and cultural perspectives in an effort to better understand both its significance and its appeal. It takes an interdisciplinary approach to the trilogy, drawing from literary studies, psychology, gender studies, media studies, philosophy, and cultural studies. An analytical rather than evaluative work, it dispenses with extended theoretical discussions, academic jargon, and even footnotes. Assuming that readers are familiar with all three volumes of The Hunger Games, the book also avoids plot summary and character analysis, instead focusing on the significance of the story and its characters. It includes a biographical essay, glossaries, questions for further study, and an extensive bibliography.

William Gibson, a founding father of cyberpunk, is one today's most popular science fiction writers. This companion is meant both for general readers and for scholars interested in Gibson's oeuvre. It provides literary and cultural context for works ranging from Gibson's first short story, "Fragments of a Hologram Rose" (1977), to his seminal cyberpunk classic Neuromancer (1984), to his best-selling novel Zero History (2010), and includes commentary on Gibson's subjects, themes, and approaches. Existing scholarship on Gibson is surveyed, and is accessible to and useful for fans and scholars alike. An extensive bibliography is included to facilitate further study of William Gibson's writing, influence, and place in the history of science fiction and in literature as a whole.

With references to his work appearing everywhere from the ""New Yorker"" to The Simpsons, Joseph Conrad remains one of the twentieth century's most widely discussed literary figures. And yet it may be that an abundant scholarship has pigeonholed Conrad as an early modernist. Tom Henthorne counters that Conrads work can be best understood in relation to that of such early twentieth-century writers as S. K. Ghosh and Solomon Plaatje postcolonialists who developed innovative ways of cloaking their anti-imperialism when working with British publishers. In ""Almayer's Folly"", ""An Outcast of the Islands"", and his first short stories, Conrad attacks imperialism overtly. Yet as he began to work with more conservative publishers to acquire a larger, imperial audience, he developed a Trojan Horse strategy, deliberately obfuscating his radical politics through his use of multiple narrators, irony, free indirect discourse, and other devices that are now associated with modernism. Sensitive to the breadth of his prospective audience, Henthorne offers an engaging and accessible analysis of Conrads canon, from the early novels and short stories to the major works, including ""The Nigger of the Narcissus"", ""Heart of Darkness"", ""Lord Jim"", and ""Nostromo"". He also considers critical responses to Conrad and the influence Conrad has had upon modernist and postcolonial writers.