Nova Solyma

The most characteristic aspect of the science fiction we all know is that it is set in the future. Far and away the vast majority of science fiction stories are set anything from five minutes to five millennia in the future. And yet, for a long time authors didn't think to set their work at any time other than the here and now. In fact the first work of fiction to be set in the future was only published in 1648, towards the end of the English Civil War. Samuel Gott was one of the Members of Parliament excluded in what was known as Pride's Purge, and Nova Solyma is one of the most significant utopian fictions to appear during the Commonwealth era. It is basically a romantic adventure that features piracy and bandits, kidnappings, cross-dressing, mistaken identity, duals, and a love story in which the two heroes seem to fall for the same girl, until right at the end when it is revealed that they are twin sisters. But it is set fifty years in the future, when the Jews have all converted to Christianity, and Nova Solyma (Jerusalem) has become a peaceful and prosperous utopia. Why it's on the list: Nova Solyma is essentially a work of religious propaganda; millenarians like Gott believed that the conversion of the Jews was a sign of the Second Coming of Christ, so this novel is clearly intended as a model for the new Commonwealth in Britain, with education, industry and good Christian values leading the way to a better world.