Utopia was a though experiment that proposed a "what if?" solution to what More perceived to be the various ills of his society, and as such is commonly regarded as being one of the earliest points of genesis for what, centuries later, became full-fledged science fiction.

Since I have read this simply to discover the roots of science fiction and not to take into consideration all the socio-political ideas that More puts forth, I won't review this in terms of whether or not I think this or that aspect of More's fictional society would work (save that he has a a terrible habit of ignoring basic human nature). What I will say is that it is a quaint but important first step into the field of imagining What May Be, and of critiquing current society through means of alternate fictional societies, both of which are central modes within SF.

Utopia was originally composed in Latin in the early 1500s, and the translation in this volume, which dated back to at least the 1960s, I believe, was an easy enough read (far easier, at any rate, than the translation I found in Famous Utopias, a collection of utopian literature that was published in 1901).

This kicks off my survey of science fiction literature, and if you wish you may track my progress on my blog, www.bnichol.com.