author
Charles Napier Richards
An early British writer of scientific romance, remembered for imagining a voyage to Venus in a novel that now reads like a window into pre-space-age wonder. Very little biographical detail seems to survive, which only adds to the book’s air of mystery.
1 Audiobook
Atalanta : or, Twelve months in the evening star
by Charles Napier Richards
About the author
Charles Napier Richards is known for Atalanta; Or, Twelve Months in the Evening Star, a 1909 novel of interplanetary travel. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction lists him as the author of that work, and Project Gutenberg has helped keep the novel available for modern readers.
What makes Richards interesting is how early he was writing. His fiction belongs to the period often called scientific romance, when authors were exploring space travel and other big speculative ideas long before real-world spaceflight. In Atalanta, he imagines a journey to Venus and uses the adventure to blend invention, exploration, and wonder.
Reliable biographical information about Richards is scarce, so it is safest to treat him as a little-known figure whose reputation rests mainly on this single surviving novel. For listeners who enjoy forgotten classics, that obscurity is part of the appeal: the book offers a glimpse of science fiction’s adventurous early days.