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Jonathan Swift publishes Gulliver's Travels
This tale about Gulliver's travels to all kinds of fantastic locations (including a flying island) represents the beginning of the sci-fi genre. -
Mary Shelley publishes Frankenstein
Here comes the dude with the green face and the knobs sticking out of his neck. Ok, so maybe the monster doesn't actually look like that in Shelley's novel. But he's still pretty creepy looking. -
Jules Verne publishes From the Earth to the Moon
The protagonists of this novel are shot out of a giant cannon that's so powerful that it propels them all the way to the moon. -
Jules Verne publishes 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
The electric submarine the Nautilus—one of the coolest sci-fi gadgets ever dreamed up, IOHO—is at the center of this fantastic voyage under the oceans. -
H.G. Wells publishes The Time Machine
Because off the book The Time Machine we know have imaginations of time travel. -
H.G. Wells publishes The War of the Worlds
Martians were invented. Uh-oh. Martians want to take over planet Earth. And these are not cute n' cuddly Martians, either. -
The critic Hugo Gernsback coins the term "science fiction."
That's much catchier than "scientifiction," the other term that Gernsback came up with. -
The magazine Astounding Stories is first published
It would become the most Astounding Science Fiction. And then Analog Science Fiction and Fact. Despite the name changes, this is the most influential magazine in the history of sci-fi. -
Aldous Huxley publishes Brave New World
Be afraid, be very afraid, of the future society depicted in this dystopian(relating to or denoting an imagined state or society where there is great suffering or injustice) novel. -
Ray Bradbury publishes The Martian Chronicles
If we want to know what colonizing Mars would be like, we need look no further than Bradbury's book. -
Isaac Asimov publishes Foundation
How do we save the Galactic Empire from total destruction? Hari Seldon, the protagonist of Asimov's novel, has the answer. -
Frank Herbert publishes Dune
Everybody wants to get their hands on mélange, the spice mined on the planet Arrakis that can keep us living forever. -
George Lucas' Star Wars is released in theatres
The most famous science fiction story Star Wars. -
Orson Scott Card published Enders Game
Set at an unspecified date in Earth's future, the novel presents an imperiled humankind after two conflicts with the Formics, an insectoid alien species they dub the "buggers". -
Kim Stanley Robinson publishes Red Mars
Another sci-fi classic about the colonization of Mars -
David Mitchell publishes Cloud Atlas
Cloud Atlas became an instant classic when it was first published. But we not only visit the future in this book, we also go back to the past.
