These days the term ‘speculative fiction’ means more than just science fiction, fantasy, and horror; it has come to include cross-genre writing (such as science fiction romance or science fantasy or science fiction crossed with detective fiction), dark fantasy, the ‘new weird’, and sub-genres such as steam punk, cyberpunk, military sf, romantic fantasy, time slip, paranormal romance, space opera, ethnographic science fiction and … the list goes on.

The overview uses a journalistic approach, exploring what is out there, who is publishing what and where. It could be termed an Australian speculative fiction menu, providing a choice of courses—or it could be used as a map for discovering Australian Speculative Fiction.

In his foreword to the work, Van Ikin says, “This book is a celebration of Australian speculative fiction, coming at a time when there is much to celebrate. Never before have so many Australians been writing speculative fiction, and never before have bookstore shelves displayed so many works by Australian writers. We’re in the midst of a ‘boom time’ for Australian speculative fiction, and it comes at a time when many devoted readers can still remember the ‘lean years’— the periods when it looked as if speculative fiction would never capture a popular readership in Australia. For those ‘true believers’, this book is a celebration and a vindication.”

This book won the non-fiction/guidebook section of the ACT Publishers' Award in December, 2006.