In a year well supplied with detailed and long-considered critical accounts of SF, Csicsery-Ronay's The Seven Beauties of Science Fiction is by far the most substantial, most important and most thought-provoking. [. . .] it has been a long time since I have read a work of SF criticism that has engaged me so heartily, or demonstrated so impressive a grasp of the genre and the critical issues, as this one. Anyone interested in the field will want to take notice of it.