First published 2022
This collection opens in 182 AD with a Roman citizen crafting satirical fiction that mocks the historical writing of his era. His lunar adventure parodies the travel narratives and grandiose claims popular among his contemporaries. The volume then leaps forward through centuries of human fascination with Earth's satellite. Edgar Allan Poe contributes his 1835 vision of scientific lunar ascent, imagining the technical possibilities that captivated nineteenth century minds. Four additional authors fill the gaps between antiquity and modernity, each responding to the moon's persistent mystery. The earliest writers populated the lunar surface with fantastic civilizations and impossible wonders. Later authors grappled with emerging scientific knowledge that revealed the moon's barren reality. Rather than diminishing their creativity, this astronomical truth pushed storytellers toward broader cosmic speculation. The collection captures humanity's evolving relationship with the night sky's most prominent feature, showing how the same celestial body inspired radically different stories across vastly different societies.
Genres: fiction, classic-literature, 20th-century, adventure, fantasy, astronomy, 21st-century, 19th-century
Vibes: atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Earth, Moon
Period: 182 AD, 19th Century, Antiquity, Modernity
285 pages · Paperback · Independently published