The backwoods of Wisconsin may not seem like the likeliest place for humanity's future in the stars to be decided, but only outside of a Clifford D. Simak story. Wisconsin was his preferred setting, particularly the woodsy Wisconsin of his youth. With his novel Way Station, he parlayed this nostalgic affection into the 1964 Hugo Award for Best Novel.

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Rather than looking at a specific work of classic SF, this episode takes a wider view. It's my personal introduction to five concepts which I think can help enhance your science fiction reading, to boost your understanding and appreciation. Most of these concepts are highly specific to SF, and represent aspects of what makes it a unique genre with its own particular traditions and effects.

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Science fiction icon Philip K. Dick is such a well known figure now - over 40 years after his death - that it is possible to lose sight of the struggles he faced in his career. Back in the 1950s, he longed to break into the mainstream fiction market but was frustrated at every turn. His lifeline was Ace Books, for whom he produced a string of short novels.

Time Out of Joint, which takes its title from a line in Hamlet, was one of Dick's efforts to escape his situation. Published in hardcover in 1959, and belatedly in paperback a few years later, it is an SF novel which was intended to help him break into a new market. While this was a failure, this novel of deception and paranoia is a precursor to some of the writer's most celebrated works.

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