You are looking at the cover of one of the very first science-fiction novels. Written by the astronomer Johannes Kepler in 1608 (but published posthumously), _Somnium_ (“the dream”) tells the story of a youth named Duracotcus who undertakes a journey to study with the astronomer Tycho Brahe. When Duracotus returns home, his mother explains to her son that she is a witch who can summon daemons who travel to the moon. _Somnium_ blends Kepler’s real-life experiences (he worked with Tycho Brahe, and his mother was formally accused of being a witch), his fanciful imagination (he discussed plant life, hydrology, and habitation on the moon, which he called “Levania”), and cutting-edge science (for instance, discussing what eclipses would look like on the moon, and how the edgy-for-its-time theory of heliocentrism would affect the way planets would look like from the moon). Good science fiction can make us look at ourselves from another perspective, which is what _Somnium_ aimed to do.
