True History
A group of adventurers sail from Greece to the Atlantic Ocean and get shot up to the moon by a giant water spout. When they arrive, they quickly get caught up in the war between the moon and Mars over the colonization of Venus.
 Colossal lunar spiders spin a web in the air between the Moon and the Morning Star. | |
| Original Title: | Ἀληθῆ διηγήματα |
|---|---|
| Written by: | Lucian of Samosata |
| Central Theme: | |
| Synopsis: | |
| Genre(s): | Satire, Science fiction |
| First published: | 2nd century CE |
This Satire is possibly the first Science Fiction in Human history
The book can be found online: here or here.
Tropes used in True History include:
- Seventh-Episode Twist: The explorers go to the moon.
- Aliens Speaking English: All the strange and far-off peoples the Greek adventurers meet speak Greek -- even the people of the moon.
- All Planets Are Earthlike: The Moon, albeit filled with all sorts of wacky monsters, is otherwise earth-like, but it gets even more weird when it turns out there is also civilization (and people, and trees) on the Sun.
- Ancient Greece: Or, more accurately, hellenic Greece.
- Based on a Great Big Lie: Parodied. Despite the story being obviously an outrageous Tall Tale, the narrator and the title itself contend that it is "entirely true".
- Boldly Coming: Some of the narrator's traveling companions have sex with tree-women on a remote island, and end up stuck to them.
- Horse of a Different Color: The king of the Moon rides on a vulture-horse.
- It Runs on Nonsensoleum: The point of this book.
- Level Ate: The sailors visit an island with rivers of wine, and an island made entirely out of cheese.
- Mister Seahorse: The lunar people are all men, so this trope naturally appears. The sons grow inside the calves of the men.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: The vulture-horses of the moon.
- One-Gender Race: The lunar people.
- Take That: Against Herodotus and generally the Greek authorities.
- Tall Tale: The book is a big Trope Maker for the literary tall tale and had a huge influence on later works in that genre.
- To Be Continued: The ending. It seems that Lucian never actually wrote a continuation (and probably never intended to).
- Ur Example: For Science Fiction and, possibly, the literary Tall Tale.
- Womb Level