This book presents the reader with some of the earliest classic SF short
stories - all of them published between 1858 and 1934, featuring both
well-known and long-forgotten writers - dealing for the first time with
topics to which science had (some) answers only at much later stages.
This includes aspects of alien life forms, transmogrification,
pandemics, life on Mars, android robots, big data, matter transmission
and impact events to name but a few.
The short stories are reprinted in full alongside extensive commentaries
which also examine some of the latest scientific thinking surrounding
the story's main theme and provide the reader with suggestions for
further reading.