''Across the Zodiac: The Story of a Wrecked Record'' (

1880 Events January–March * January 22 – Toowong State School is founded in Queensland, Australia. * January – The international White slave trade affair scandal in Brussels is exposed and attracts international infamy. * February � ...

) is a

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

novel by

Percy Greg Percy Greg (7 January 1836 Bury – 24 December 1889, Chelsea), son of William Rathbone Greg, was an English writer. Percy Greg, like his father, wrote about politics, but his views were violently reactionary: his ''History of the United States t ...

, who has been credited as an originator of the

sword and planet Sword and planet is a subgenre of science fantasy that features rousing adventure stories set on other planets, and usually featuring humans as protagonists. The name derives from the heroes of the genre engaging their adversaries in hand-to-ha ...

subgenre of science fiction.

Plot

The book details the creation and use of

apergy Anti-gravity (also known as non-gravitational field) is a hypothetical phenomenon of creating a place or object that is free from the force of gravity. It does not refer to the lack of weight under gravity experienced in free fall or orbit, or to ...

, a form of anti-gravitational energy, and details a flight to

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury (planet), Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Mars (mythology), Roman god of war. Mars is a terr ...

in 1830. The planet is inhabited by diminutive beings; they are convinced that life does not exist elsewhere than on their world, and refuse to believe that the unnamed narrator is actually from Earth. (They think he is an unusually tall Martian from some remote place on their planet.) The book's narrator names his spacecraft the ''Astronaut''.

Novel concepts

The book contains what was probably the first

alien language Alien languages, i.e. languages of extraterrestrial beings, are a hypothetical subject since none have been encountered so far. The research in these hypothetical languages is variously called exolinguistics, xenolinguistics or astrolinguistics. ...

in any work of fiction.Ekman, F: "The Martial Language of Percy Greg", ''Invented Languages'' Summer 2008, p. 11
Richard K. Harrison
, 2008 His space ship design also featured a small garden, an early prediction of

hydroponics Hydroponics is a type of horticulture and a subset of hydroculture which involves growing plants, usually crops or medicinal plants, without soil, by using water-based mineral nutrient solutions in aqueous solvents. Terrestrial or aquatic plan ...

Influence

The same title was used for a later, similar book—''Across the Zodiac: A Story of Adventure'' (

1896 Events January–March * January 2 – The Jameson Raid comes to an end, as Jameson surrenders to the Boers. * January 4 – Utah is admitted as the 45th U.S. state. * January 5 – An Austrian newspaper reports that Wil ...

) by Edwin Pallander (1869–1952) (the pseudonym of UK biologist, botanist and author

Lancelot Francis Sanderson Bayly Lancelot du Lac (French for Lancelot of the Lake), also written as Launcelot and other variants (such as early German ''Lanzelet'', early French ''Lanselos'', early Welsh ''Lanslod Lak'', Italian ''Lancillotto'', Spanish ''Lanzarote del Lago' ...

). Pallander copied some elements of Greg's plot; in his book, gravity is negated by a

gyroscope A gyroscope (from Ancient Greek γῦρος ''gŷros'', "round" and σκοπέω ''skopéō'', "to look") is a device used for measuring or maintaining orientation and angular velocity. It is a spinning wheel or disc in which the axis of rota ...

.Jess Nevins, ''The Encyclopedia of Fantastic Victoriana'', Austin, TX, Monkeybrain Books, 2005.

References

External links

''Across the Zodiac''
at

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

(scanned books original editions color illustrated) * Fiction set in 1830 1880 British novels 1880 science fiction novels British science fiction novels Space exploration novels Novels set on Mars Novels set in the 1830s Planetary romances {{1880s-sf-novel-stub

Plot

Novel concepts

Influence

See also

References

External links