''Annals of the Twenty-Ninth Century: or, The Autobiography of the Tenth President of the World-Republic'' 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 written by Andrew Blair, and published anonymously in

1874 Events January–March * January 1 – New York City annexes The Bronx. * January 2 – Ignacio María González becomes head of state of the Dominican Republic for the first time. * January 3 – Third Carlist War &ndas ...

. Blair's work is one of a group of early science fiction novels that are now little known, but were influential in their own time—group that includes

Edward Maitland Edward Maitland (27 October 18242 October 1897) was an English humanitarian writer and occultist. Life He was born at Ipswich on 27 October 1824, was the son of Charles David Maitland, perpetual curate of St. James's Chapel, Brighton; he was th ...

's ''By and By'' (1873),

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 ...

's ''

Across the Zodiac ''Across the Zodiac: The Story of a Wrecked Record'' (1880) is a science fiction novel by Percy Greg, who has been credited as an originator of the sword and planet subgenre of science fiction. Plot The book details the creation and use of a ...

'' (1880), and

John Jacob Astor IV John Jacob Astor IV (July 13, 1864 – April 15, 1912) was an American business magnate, real estate developer, investor, writer, lieutenant colonel in the Spanish–American War, and a prominent member of the Astor family. He died in the sinki ...

's ''

A Journey in Other Worlds ''A Journey in Other Worlds: A Romance of the Future'' is a science fiction novel by John Jacob Astor IV, published in 1894. Overview The book offers a fictional account of life in the year 2000. It contains abundant speculation about technolog ...

'' (1894). Blair tells an extravagant tale of a future age in which the peoples of the Earth have been united in a Christian "Mundo-Lunar Republic", and other planets in the solar system have been reached and their native inhabitants encountered. One modern critic has called Blair's book "a hodge-podge of interplanetary travel and super-scientific inventions" but also "a speculation of Stapledonian magnitude." In the view of another, Blair portrays "the union of science and religion...under the sign of a positivist

Deism Deism ( or ; derived from the Latin ''deus'', meaning "god") is the Philosophy, philosophical position and Rationalism, rationalistic theology that generally rejects revelation as a source of divine knowledge, and asserts that Empirical evi ...

mixed up with various utopian socialisms, and progressing from one technological wonder to another."

A sample quote

The modern U.S. Navy trains dolphins; Blair foresees much more:

...a levy of 40,000 naturalists were engaged for years in forming a hundred different zoological armies. Each of these was, by an admirable system of drill, brought to such a high state of discipline that a brigade, consisting of a thousand elephants, a thousand rhinoceroses, 180,000 monkeys and 15,000 other beasts of draught and burden could be officered with perfect ease by as few as one thousand naturalists. Birds of burden and fish of burden were in like manner drafted into the ranks of the zoological army, and, being subjected to similar training, were brought to a similar degree of efficiency.''Annals of the Twenty-Ninth Century'', Vol. 1, pp. 61–2.

References

{{reflist 1874 science fiction novels 1874 British novels British science fiction novels Works published anonymously Novels set in the 29th century