Lucian

I wanted to read this book simply because it was written in the second century AD and is said to be the earliest known work of fiction. Curiosity had me wondering what sort of outlandish adventures this book might boast. The author starts out his tall tale admitting that everything he is about to say is a lie. The creative nonsense to follow is in fact wildly unbelievable. To me, it reads like a story created by a middle school classroom of students brainstorming outlandish adventures one common hero might face after setting sail for anywhere imaginable. It was a fun read, yes, but not near as impressive as the Odyssey or the Iliad.… (more)

Amusingly this story begins with an introduction by the author describing his tale as a lie, or untruth, explaining he was influenced by Homer's Ulysses (founder of all foolery), and how he perceived this book to be an exercise, (intermission), a relaxation from serious studies, so that he may be more apt to endure continued (serious) studies. The story is indeed like Homer's stories; men setting off on a journey, but this time they end up in space, discovering strange worlds, with wine rivers, seductive women, milk seas, demigods, barbarians, and a giant whale. The sailors meet with Socrates, Achilles, and Epicurus, and others (but not Plato, as he dwelled in a city framed by himself (i.e. Utopia). Fun story. Early Sci-Fi.… (more)

Absurd travelogue in the vain of the Odyssey, voyages of sindbad, or the later reports of Mandeville and Raleigh but with the honesty to admit it's all nonsense. Some familiarity with the Odyssey might be of benefit, theres clearly some satire going on but a lot of it is hard to be sure of after so many centuries.
Still this is a pretty fun short read, things like this can be a bit too random and surreal for my taste but this moved along quick enough from incident to incident to keep my interest.
The illustrations by aubrey beardsley and others in the version i read, added a certain weird charm of their own to the proceedings.… (more)