historic events. The Retief stories by Keith Laumer and the Chanur books by C. J. Cherryh have politics and political maneuverings as some of the main themes, and Frank Herbert's Dune books offer advanced explorations of human politics, including the dovetailing economics. Often this focus can descend into conspiracy and paranoia where the premise is that there are secret forces out to get the protagonists, the seminal example of which is the Illuminatus! Trilogy. Most commonly, science fiction deals with the political fallout of its own premises. A story will posit some new event or technology and explore its political dimensions; this includes most techno-thrillers but also encompasses a large body of traditional science fiction. An example is the Philip K. Dick story The Minority Report (upon which the film starring Tom Cruise is based), which introduces the idea of perfectly predicting a crime of violence so the perpetrator can be arrested before the crime is committed, and the political and legal ramifications of actually using such a system. Examples by category Adhocracy Cory Doctorow, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom Alien Contact Although encounters between humanity and non-human intelligences serve as the primary theme in the series of novels by Arthur C. Clarke that began with 2001: A Space Odyssey, they also explore the irrationality produced by Cold War military secrecy. Carl Sagan, Contact Peter Watts, Blindsight Anarchy The Dispossessed, by Ursula K. Le Guin, depicts a functional and liberated (but materially impoverished) anarcho-syndicalist society and contrasts it against its wealthy (but exploitative) capitalist neighbor. In the Culture series by Iain M. Banks, the societies of humanity have essentially evolved into political anarchies; people associate or cooperate entirely on a voluntary basis for mutual support. There are organisations for cooperative ventures such as defense, exploration and even espionage, but they are run on an entirely voluntary basis. Advanced technology, cultural evolution and the planned economy liberate humanity from inequality and economic scarcity. In The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, Robert A. Heinlein presents a human society on the Moon as an ideal anarchy, populated by political exiles and held together by the need for cooperation to ensure mutual survival, coupled with the ease for revenge in the event of harm. The revolutionaries in The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress are vaguely anarcho-capitalist. The LaNague Federation series of novels and stories by F. Paul Wilson. The Fall Revolution books