Returning to the topic of underground adventures we come to "The Life & Adventures of Peter Wilkins-A Cornishman" by Robert Platock...

One of the enduring tropes of SF is the "Hollow Earth" concept, where the traveller encounters a subterranean world filled with monsters...

The next thinker to discuss the universe at large is Frenchman Bernard de Fontanelle; born in 1657 he lived to within a few weeks of his...

We mentioned William Herschel (1738-1822)who discovered Uranus and was the first to suggest that the Milky Way was the densest part of a...

The Irish Enlightenment scientist Robert Boyle (1627-91) is remembered for his work on gases and Boyle's Law is still important in...

We are getting nearer to modern times but we must not overlook such people as M. Vivenair who in 1784 published "A Journey Lately...

In our tour of the history of SF, we must not pass over "Gulliver's Travels" by Jonathon Swift (1667-1745). Swift, who became something...

Moving ever closer to the modern age of SF we encounter Voltaire and his short work "Micromegas". It starts with the description of an...

Here's an excerpt from the Ab Initio section of my latest novel: They were thrown unconscious to the floor as the sphere vanished with an...

Galileo's great contemporary was Johannes Kepler, who made vast strides in revealing the true nature of the universe. He came up with the...

As we have seen, Copernicanism remained a theory because there were strong scientific objections to it. What was needed was a new thinker...

However, it must not be thought that Copernicus's views swept Europe: there were many learned men who put up strong objections to...

As we have seen Copernicus correctly put Earth in orbit around the sun but his view was still medieval: he had nothing to say about the...

Speculative Fiction often deals with the concept of "Other Worlds." This, in turn, depends upon the understanding that Earth is a world...

Bishop Francis Godwin (1562 - 1633) wrote an early tale of Lunar exploration towards the end of his life. Godwin was the Bishop of...

Cyrano de Bergerac (1619-55) is today perhaps best known for his portrayal in fiction as the unfortunate owner of a protuberant nose....

Speculative fiction died out after the fall of the Roman Empire and it was not until the early Modern period that the first signs of...

Several writers have suggested that Frankenstein by Mary Shelly is the first true SF story. This is true insofar as one accepts the idea...

We live in what some call a "Post Truth" era. Apparently if you believe in something passionately enough, that alone makes it true. But...