| A Journey in Other Worlds | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) | John Jacob Astor IV |
| Illustrator | Dan Beard |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction Speculative fiction Utopian fiction |
| Publisher | D. Appleton & Co. |
| Publication date | 1894 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 476 pp. |
| ISBN | N/A |
A Journey in Other Worlds: A Romance of the Future is a science fiction novel by John Jacob Astor IV, published in 1894.[1]
The book offers a fictional account of life in the year 2088. It contains abundant speculation about technological invention, including descriptions of a worldwide 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 multi-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 through apergy, an anti-gravitational energy force. 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.
A paperback edition of A Journey in Other Worlds was issued in 2003.[2]