Brian Stableford

The Ring of Light Brian Stableford

In March 1913, a nuclear rocket-powered spaceship leaves France to explore the planets of the Solar System. On board are the intrepid Marquis de Valsorres, the eminent Dr. Portier, the beautiful Zabeth and their loyal companion, Thomas. After a long stay on an utopian-like Mars, they reach the prehistoric world of Saturn. But in the meantime the Great War has started on Earth and a rival German expedition threatens their very survival...

The Ring of Light first appeared as a feuilleton serial in the daily newspaper Le Petit Parisien from 6 November 1921 to 4 February 1922, more than a year Herman Oberth's seminal By Rocket into Interplanetary Space (1923), and Otto Willi Gail's The Shot into Infinity (1925). It is of considerable interest with regard to the history of French speculative fiction, especially interplanetary fiction, for it is one of the earliest responses to the popularizing of the notion that space travel might become practicable with the aid of rockets, and particularly rockets propelled by atomic power derived from radium.