Jules Verne 4 hr 38 min read

Two duelists fire at once, killing only a grazing cow, and a scientific mystery of strange sounds in the sky heralds Robur, master of a marvelous flying machine, the Albatross.

Jules Verne's 1886 classic (here in German, 'Robur der Sieger'), a companion to his balloon tales, pits lighter-than-air against heavier-than-air flight. Visionary, thrilling, prophetic. Read it for Verne's bold prophecy of the airplane age, embodied in the imperious inventor Robur and his wondrous aerial ship.

In its time

Published in 1886, during the 1880s, lost races and dying earths.

Reading it

4 hr 38 min read (a novel-length work, settle in).