Fiction Predictions - 20,00 Leagues Under the Sea

 

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by nikogeyer

Welcome to the February 2026 issue of Fiction Predictions on the Supernatural Underground Blog. This next book is very dear to my heart, and also uncanny in its prediction of the future.

The History

When I was five years old, my dad took my brother and me to the drive-in to see

Salila from the Amassia Series

20,000 Leagues Under
the Sea. 

I was basically terrified the entire time, watching through hands clutched over my eyes, fingers barely spread to catch a glimmer of the magical, frightening world of Jules Verne. 

It would be quite a few years later before I read the book, but it has stayed with me, as any of you will know if you've read my fantasies about people living under the sea... 

The Author

Jules Verne was a French poet and novelist born in 1828. He pioneered the SF/Fantasy genre, writing books about space, air, and underwater travel before any aircraft, practical submarines, or spacecraft existed. 

He was a genius with his narrative and his incredible imagination... or did he actually see the future?  

The Predictions

Verne conceptualised the Nautilus, his underwater vessel, at a time when submarines were little more than handcrafted iron coffins. While he didn't actually invent the submarine, he predicted the sophistication and propulsion systems that would make them viable nearly 100 years later. 

William O'Connor Studios

In the novel, Verne has Captain Nemo and his crew leave the Nautilus wearing self-contained diving suits with air tanks, allowing them to walk on the ocean floor for hours. This predates SCUBA -  self-contained underwater breathing apparatus -  by 70 years when Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Émile Gagnan designed the first successful and safe open-circuit scuba. I wonder if they read 20,00 Leagues and were inspired!

The novel also introduced the notion of marine research and oceanography long before Couseau was born. At the time, everyone thought that the only thing to be found under the sea was a vast, lifeless abyss. 

Was Jules Verne a Seer?

With so many future inventions written nearly 200 years ago, do you agree with me that authors can be seers? Or could there be a web of causality that moves forward and backward in time, a time that doesn't necessarily follow the order first - then  - finally?

Join me next month, where we will talk more about this and other ideas of backward and retro causation. 

And, please let me know in the comments if you have a favourite book you'd like to explore this way.

Isn't it all so fascinating?

xxKim

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About Kim Falconer

Kim Falconer, also writing as AK Wilder, has released Crown of Bones, a YA Epic Fantasy with Curse of Shadows as book 2 in the series. 

Currently, she is ready with the third book, planned to be out in 2025. TBA

 Quantum Enchantment

Kim can be found on AKWilder.com, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and KimFalconer.com. 

Throw the bones on the AKWilder.com site.. See you there!

Read Blood and Water, a PNR alt history that will leave you questioning every natural disaster ever endured.

“There is no doubt fiction makes a better job of the truth.”