In 1908, Jean de La Hire, the creator of The Nyctalope, penned The Fiery Wheel, a classic space opera in which five Earthmen are abducted in the eponymous spacecraft by aliens from Saturn, and taken to Venus and Mercury where they encounter strange lifeforms, before returning to Earth through mind transfer. The Fiery Wheel is the first work of fiction to feature the theme of "alien abduction," all the more remarkable because such abductions are achieved by means of a vehicle resembling the "flying disks" or "flying saucers" later credited with this phenomena."It is an essential piece in the...