I’m Menelaos

Camille Flammarion’s Omega is not a novel in the conventional sense—it’s a cosmic thought experiment dressed as fiction. First published in 1893 by a French astronomer and science popularizer, the book explores the slow, inevitable death of Earth and humanity’s philosophical response to cosmic catastrophe.

What makes Omega extraordinary is how far ahead of its time it was. Flammarion eerily anticipates concepts like solar energy, international unions (a proto–European Union), and even something close to television. But this isn’t a tech forecast book—it’s a meditation on civilization, science, and the place of humankind in the vast, indifferent universe.

The book is at once fascinating and challenging. Its prose is dense and ornate (especially in the original), though this modern translation lightens the load while staying faithful to its spirit. The pacing is slow, the tone often speculative rather than dramatic, but for readers drawn to the history of ideas and the roots of science fiction, Omega is a rare and rewarding find.

It’s also a reminder: long before the term “climate change” or “existential risk” existed, people were already wondering how it all might end—and what it would mean.