Stories of exotic lands populated by strange peoples have likely existed for as long as there have been human beings.

During the age of discovery, countless imaginary tales were told of explorers visiting some remote fictional land.

By the 20th century, however,

the entire world had been explored,

from pole to pole.

If you wanted to tell a tale of an explorer

in a remote and unexplored land,

you could no longer set it on the Earth.

But there are other planets.

Welcome to the history of the 20th century.

Music The Episode 330 Amazing Stories

Pointing out the moment when science fiction first began, identifying a literary work as the first science fiction story ever told, is a controversial topic in itself.

Fantasy stories, which I talked about in episode 302, have been around as long as stories in general.

Indeed, they were probably the first stories told.

But science fiction only came along much later.

One strong contender for the title of first science fiction story is the Englishwoman Mary Shelley's novel, Frankenstein, published in 1818.

Mary was just 18 years old when she began the story. That was in 1816 when she was in a relationship with the poet Percy Shelley,

whom she eventually married. Mary and Percy and Mary's stepsister were on a summer holiday visiting Lord Byron,

along with some other guests, in Geneva, Switzerland.

But the summer of 1816 was not a good time to be on holiday.

That year, 1816, is known as the year without a summer,

which we now know was caused by the eruption of Mount Tambora in the East Indies.

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