Fitz-James O"Brien lived only 33 years -- from 1828 till 1862 -- but in his brief life he left a mark that endures today. O"Brien endures because he was a remarkable writer. Remarkable indeed! He had a way of blending of hard fact with almost-fanciful fantasy, juxtaposing technology and mysticism, creating convincing and "scientific" settings that play against the otherworldly romance. For all the weird fancifulness -- these days O"Brien is read mostly as a successor to Poe -- his work has qualities we now associate with science fiction: O"Brien clearly researched the field of microscopy before he wrote _The Diamond Lens_; it reads in places like hard SF.