READ AN EXCERPT In the same series: News from the Moon The Germans on Venus The World Above the World Nemoville Investigation of the Future

Cover by Mike Hoffman THE SUPREME PROGRESS Eighteen proto-science fiction tales by Paul Adam, Charles Cros, Charles Epheyre, Eugène Mouton, Louis Mullem, X.B. Saintine, Victorien Sardou edited by Brian Stableford It was, therefore, a woman. Glaux, piqued by curiosity, observed her movements. She went idly back and forth, I cannot say anything about her extraterrestrial beauty, or of her attire, of which our most sumptuous flowers give only a dull and monotonous idea. US$22.95/GBP 14.99 5x8 tpb, 304 pages ISBN-13: 978-1-935558-82-8 This collection of 18 proto-science fiction tales, translated and edited by renowned science fiction writer and scholar Brian Stableford, includes such ground-breaking tales as Charles Cros' An Interastral Drama (1872), about an unlawful love between an Earthman and a Venusian woman, Victorien Sardou's The Black Pearl (1862), the first romance of forensic science, Eugène Mouton's The End of the World (1872), depicting an ecocatastrophe precipitated by global warming generated by human industrial activity, and Louis Mullem's The Supreme Progress (1890), an imaginative tour de force of unprecedented scope predicting ideas that were later to be popularized by writers such as Olaf Stapledon. All the stories included in this volume predate the first translation into French of H.G. Wells. They are representative of a distinct tradition of romans scientifiques whose cardinal influences included astronomer Camille Flammarion and Villiers de l'Isle-Adam. This edition includes a historical introduction and notes by Stableford. Brian M. Stableford has been a professional writer since 1965. He has published more than 60 science fiction and fantasy novels, as well as several authoritative non-fiction books. He is also translating the works of Paul Féval and other French writers of the fantastique for Black Coat Press which also published his most two recent fantasy novels: The New Faust at the Tragicomique, The Wayward Muse and The Stones of Camelot. Contents: The Black Pearl (1862) by Victorien Sardou The Paradise of Flowers (1864) by X. B. Saintine The Great Discovery of Animules (1864) by X. B. Saintine The End of the World (1872) by Eugène Mouton An Interastral Drama (1872) by Charles Cros The Science of Love (1874) by Charles Cros A Newspaper of the Future (1880) by Charles Cros The Pebble that Died of Love (1886) by Charles Cros The Mirosaurus (1885) by Charles Epheyre Professor Bakermann's Microbe (1890) by Charles Epheyre A Tale of the Future (1893) by Paul Adam The End of a Monopoly (late 1880s-early 1890s) by Louis Mullem The New Year (late 1880s-early 1890s) by Louis Mullem The Invisibility of Monsieur Gridaine (late 1880s-early 1890s) by Louis Mullem Club Conversation (late 1880s-early 1890s) by Louis Mullem The Shadow and his Man (late 1880s-early 1890s) by Louis Mullem Chemical Eternity (late 1880s-early 1890s) by Louis Mullem The Supreme Progress (late 1880s-early 1890s) by Louis Mullem Introduction and Notes by Brian Stableford.