"The year 1866 was signalised by a remarkable incident, a mysterious and puzzling phenomenon, which doubtless no one has yet forgotten”* So it begins: a 69,000 mile voyage across and around the world's oceans in the submersible ship Nautilus, a voyage on which no one who embarks ever forgets.

It is refreshing to read science fiction in the form that noted author and reviewer of the genre Gary Westfahl recalls in citing Hugo Gernsback's definition: "Let me clarify the term science-fiction. When I speak of it, I mean the truly scientific, prophetic science-fiction with the full accent on science. I emphatically do not mean the fairy tale brand, the weird or fantastic type which mistakenly masquerades under the name of science-fiction today."

In his introduction to The Works of Jules Verne, Editor Charles F. Horne, PhD, cites the following from Verne himself: "I base my groundwork on groundwork of actual fact." He illustrated this by instancing his submarine, the Nautilus. "This, he said when carefully considered, is a submarine mechanism about which there is nothing wholly extraordinary, nor beyond the bounds of actual scientific knowledge. It rises and sinks by perfectly well-known processes...Its motive force is no secret; the only point at which I have called in the aid of imagination is in the application of this force, and here I have purposely left a blank, for the reader to form his own conclusion, a mere technical hiatus."

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea first appeared in book form in 1869, the sixth in the series of fifty-four novels known as the Voyages Extraordinaires. It stands in sharp contrast to today's popular apocalyptic sci-fi scenarios, which usually spell doomsday for mankind or, at best, come as a call to prepare for the dystopian nightmare future. What is forgotten is the wondrous anticipation that science and its potential for bettering the human condition once held. Unlike snide anti-science social commentary dressed as science fiction or reworked mythology marketed as "science fantasy" to an audience ignorant of or opposed to a classical education, Verne's Voyages Extraordinaires points back to the traditional values of honesty, courage, virtue, honor, and the hope that a scientifically empowered mankind will be well-guided to realize its noblest dreams. (Summary by Raymond Lakner)