Written in the second century AD, A True Story is satirical science-fiction novel that was waaay ahead of its time. The novel was written by Lucian of Samosata, an Assyrian-Greek author as a satire of mythical tales and is the first known work to contain sci-fi themes like space travel .
Presented as an outright lie, in opposition to many of the outlandish classical legends he was lampooning, the story also featured aliens from other worlds, as well as space wars. In the book, the author and his companions are sailing out past Pillars of Hercules at the mouth of the Mediterranean when their ship is blown off course in a storm. They find an enchanted island with a river of flowing wine and are then funneled by a whirlwind to the moon, where bizzare aliens are waging war over the King of the Moon's plans to colonize the Sun.
After the King of the Sun's forces block out all light from reaching the moon, The Moon King capitulates and a truce is reached. With peace established, Lucian then expounds on daily Lunar life, before the travelers return to Earth and are promptly swallowed by a whale. They defeat the whale and the strange fish people that inhabit its belly, and eventually come to the mythical Isle of the Blessed. Hre they encounter both Homer and his characters and also discover that certain authors are undergoing permanent punishment for telling lies and fables, including the historian Herodotus.
The adventures continue through strange new lands until Lucian cuts his story short and swears that the tale will be picked up again in the next installment. But as he warned at the very beginning, the whole tale is a lie, and so was the final promise - no further texts were written.