The Science of the Stars

By Gustáv Reuss
Translated from the original Slovak by David Short
 
£12.99paperback, 127mm x 203 mm, 262 pages
 
The first ever SF novel written in Slovak
 
ISBN: 978-1-914990-22-9
 
Publication date: 
UK/ EU 6 December 2023
USA/ Can 15 February 2024
 
A mid-nineteenth century country gentleman builds a balloon to fly to the moon but crashes in Egypt. Instead of giving up, he builds another flying machine powered by gunpowder, and travels with his neighbours around our solar system. These are his collected memoirs.
 
Written in 1856, ten years before the publication of Jules Verne’s From the Earth to the Moon, Krutohlav and his friends set off to explore the solar system in a mototised ‘dragon’ powered by gunpowder taking with them many kinds of sausage, cheeses, pickled cabbage and wine.
 
Krutohlav, a country gentleman from rural Central Europe sets off to explore the solar system. His first attempt to travel to the moon in a balloon ends in failure after crashlanding in the Egyptian desert. Instead of giving up, Krutohlav builds a new craft powered by gunpowder and travels with his neighbours around our solar system. These are his collected memoirs.
 
The author. Gustáv Mauricíus Reuss (1818-61) was a physican by training and a polymath by inclination, he lost no opportunity to popularize the science of his day. His vast writings cover botany, ethnography, history, acrcheology and astronomy
 
The Translator. David Short taught Czech and Slovak at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies (now part of University College London) from 1973 to 2011.