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, translated here for the first time, first appeared as a feuilleton serial in a daily newspaper more than a year before Herman Oberth's seminal By Rocket into Interplanetary Space and Otto Willi Gail's The Shot into Infinity. It is of considerable interest with regard to the history of French speculative fiction, especially interplanetary fiction, for it