Part the first of the history of science fiction series! In which we journey through time and space to learn about the development of the genre way before it was actually a thing and we look at some great examples of proto-science fiction written before 1800. Plus there are costumes (yes, plural) which may or may not have been a bad idea but certainly make me look hella ridiculous.

Introduction: http://youtu.be/DzZ3Mr8dhKc
Part 2: http://youtu.be/MNcwWfFgHrE
Part 3: http://youtu.be/_MInC56LA90
Part 4: http://youtu.be/i7wUz5dmR6I

Works mentioned and further resources:
True History by Lucian of Samosata.
Urashima Tarō - unknown author.
Theologus Autodidactus by Ibn al-Nafis.
Somnium by Johannes Kepler (in the video I state that this was published in 1608 which is incorrect. It was written in 1608 but not published until the 1630s).
The Description of a New World, Called The Blazing-World by Margaret Cavendish.
Cyrano de Bergerac - The Other World: Comical History of the States and Empires of the Moon.
Gulliver's Travels Joanathan Swift.
Micromégas - Voltaire.

All these works with the exception of Somnium can be found online for free at sites like Archive.org or Project Gutenberg. I can't find a free English-language translation of Somnium - sorry!

The next video in this series will be the 19th century and should be up next Wednesday.

By the way, check out my new channel logo design by Luke Oram - http://lukeoram.com/

Where else to find me:
Goodreads - http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/8287397-elizabeth
Twitter - https://twitter.com/Books_Pieces
Tumblr - http://booksandpieces.tumblr.com/
Instagram - http://instagram.com/thebooksandpieces

New video up every Wednesday.