Across the Zodiac

Across the Zodiac: The Story of a Wrecked Record is a science fiction novel by Percy Greg, who has been credited as an originator of the sword and planet subgenre of science fiction. It is the first science fiction novel set primarily on Mars. It contains the first documented use of the term "astronaut", here the name of a spacecraft.

Plot

The book details the creation and use of apergy, a form of anti-gravitational energy, and details a flight to Mars in 1830. The planet is inhabited by diminutive beings; they are convinced that life does not exist elsewhere than on their world, and refuse to believe that the unnamed narrator is actually from Earth.
The book's narrator names his spacecraft the Astronaut.

Novel concepts

The book contains what was probably the first alien language in any work of fiction. His space ship design also featured a small garden, an early prediction of hydroponics.

Influence

The same title was used for a later, similar book—Across the Zodiac: A Story of Adventure by Edwin Pallander . Pallander copied some elements of Greg's plot; in his book, gravity is negated by a gyroscope.