Twenty years before Peary, a French scientific expedition to the North Pole becomes stranded in the ice. Because of their knowledge and local resources, they manage to build a super-scientific city dubbed Crystalopolis. However, rival American and Russian explorers threaten the new conquerors of the Arctic... Alphonse Brown was one of the first French writers to follow in the footsteps of Jules Verne, penning a series of "extraordinary voyages," relying on air power and futuristic inventions. He was one of the main contributors to the leading scientific anticipation magazines La Science illustrée (in which City of Glass first appeared in 1890) and Le Journal des Voyages, for which he wrote the 1901 classic The Rain Makers, predicting the science of weather control.