Journey to the Center of the Earth

Written almost a century before the daring flights of the astronauts, Jules Verne's prophetic novel of man's race to the stars is a classic adventure tale enlivened by broad satire and scientific acumen. When the members of the elite Baltimore Gun Club find themselves lacking any urgent assignments at the close of the Civil War, their president, Impey Barbicane, proposes that they build a gun big enough to launch a rocket to the moon. But when Barbicane's adversary places a huge wager that the project will fail and a daring volunteer elevates the mission to a "manned" flight, one man's dream turns into an international space race. A story of rip-roaring action, humor, and wild imagination,From the Earth to the Moonis as uncanny in its accuracy and as filled with authentic detail and startling immediacy as Verne's timeless masterpieces20,000 Leagues Under the SeaandAround the World in Eighty Days.

Jules Verne was born on February 8, 1828, in Nantes, the port city near the mouth of the Loire. He was the eldest son of a prosperous lawyer, and when he grew up his father sent him to Paris to study law, although he put most of his energy into writing plays. Everything changed for him in 1863, when his novel Five Weeks in a Balloon was published by Jules Hetzel, and became a big bestseller. Verne and his publisher called his science fiction "extraordinary voyages" -a great name, invoking as it does the ancient strength of this particular story type. A plethora of didactic tales followed, and Verne was hailed for his ability to weave narrative and mechanical detail. The subterranean world revealed in JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH (1864) both entertained readers and served as a geology lesson. From the Earth to the Moon: Passage Direct in 97 Hours and 20 Minutes (1865), set in post-bellum America, centered on space exploration. Around the World in Eighty Days appeared in 1873, garnering worldwide publicity for Verne.

Kim Stanley Robinson is the author of the Nebula and Hugo Award-winning Mars trilogy--Red Mars, Green Mars, and Blue Mars--as well as Antarctica, The Wild Shore, The Gold Coast, Pacific Edge, A Short, Sharp Shock, and other novels.