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A Journey In Other Worlds

John Jacob Astor

Book Overview: 

A Journey in Other Worlds: A Romance of the Future is a science fiction novel by John Jacob Astor IV. The book offers a fictional account of life in the future. It contains abundant speculation about technological invention, including descriptions of a world-wide telephone network, solar power, air travel, space travel to the planets Saturn and Jupiter, and terraforming engineering projects — damming the Arctic Ocean, and adjusting the Earth’s axial tilt (by the Terrestrial Axis Straightening Company). In Astor’s novel, the future United States is a mulch-continental superpower. European nations have been taken over by socialist governments, which have sold most of their African colonies to the U.S.; and Canada, Mexico, and the countries of South America have requested annexation. Race conflict is a thing of the past, since the “dark elements” of the American hegemony have died out. Space travel is achieved by linking an airship to a comet. Jupiter proves to be a jungle world, with flesh-eating plants, vampire bats, giant snakes and mastodons, and flying lizards. The Americans discover a wealth of exploitable resources: iron, silver, gold, lead, copper, coal, and oil. Saturn, in contrast, is an ancient world of silent spirits. The spirit beings provide the explorers with foresight of their own deaths.

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Book Excerpt: 
. . .Ayrault, "we know all about Mars; it is but one seventh the size of the earth, and as the axis is inclined more than ours, it would be a less comfortable globe than this; while, as our president here told us in his T. A. S. Company's report, the axis of Venus is inclined to such a degree that it would be almost uninhabitable for us. It would be as if colonists tried to settle Greenland, or had come to North America during its Glacial period. Neither Venus nor Mars would be a good place now."

"Where should you propose to go?" asked Stillman.

"To Jupiter, and, if possible, after that to Saturn," replied Ayrault; "the former's mean distance from the sun is 480,000,000 miles; but, as our president showed us, its axis is so nearly straight that I think, with its internal warmth, there will be nothing to fear from cold. Though, on account of the planet's vast size, objects on its surface weigh more than twice as much as here, if I am able to reach it . . . Read More

Community Reviews

I think John Jacob Astor IV would have been fascinated by the machine that killed him. One hundred years ago, the RMS Titanic sank in the North Atlantic after being struck by an iceberg. Many people know that Astor was one of the victims, but most do not know that he was also the world's wealthiest

Bad in novels like unhappiness in families comes in many varieties. There is can’t take your eyes away bad. There is so bad it is good. Then there is the bad like when the middle school play gives the solo song to the boy who may have a good voice but it is badly cracked and everyone knows he has to

Published in 1894 the book goes by the usual formula of those times. Basically no story and a lot of description of technology or what they see in space. Those books are never my favorites but I always have an interest to read what this person imagined the future to be like. In this case I had some

Had a real hard time staying awake through this one. A futuristic fantasy of the first voyage into space and the exploration of Jupiter. So much detail, both scientific and philosophical, was difficult to navigate the long stretches of explanations. Some entertaining bits and comical visioning......more

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