A Journey In Other Worlds

'A Journey In Other Worlds' is a science fiction novel by John Jacob Astor IV, published in 1894. It offers a fictional account of life in the year 2000 and speculates about technological invention, including descriptions of a worldwide telephone network, solar power, air travel, space travel to the planets Saturn and Jupiter, and terraforming engineering projects — damming the Arctic Ocean, and adjusting the Earth's axial tilt. A work both of vision and fancy - Jupiter, for instance, proves to be a jungle world, with flesh-eating plants, vampire bats, giant snakes, mastodons and flying lizards - the novel is Astor's best known work. One of the richest people in the world in the early 20th century, Astor was tragically lost at sea in the sinking of the RMS Titanic.