Vintage SciFi Podcast 12 The World’s Last Wonder XIII & XIV
Welcome to issue 12, the final issue for season 2 of the Vintage SciFi Podcast. Vintage Scifi Podcast will return, hopefully later in the year.
This issue we farewell The World’s Last Wonder with Chapters XIII and XIV. First published in 1901 in the Tocsin newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, this story contains a lot of firsts. The first modern space opera of Australia. The first time the word ‘scientist’ is used in an Australian science fiction story. The first appearance of an airlock in a science fiction story. Discussions of thinner atmospheres, the problems of weightlessness, and other scientific space facts not commonly used in science fiction until years later. Even a deep understanding of the effects of gravity in space, something even modern space operas and space fictions have difficulty conveying correctly. And, the first appearance of a realistic Alien First Contact situation. Thanks to The World’s Last Wonder, we can pinpoint the beginning of modern science fiction in Australia as early 1901.
And now, the final two chapters.
Enjoy.