Amadan na Briona

This was a surprisingly good page-turner. A science fiction novel written in 1904, it was one of Jules Verne's last works. It shows its age, of course, but considering it is about a combination automobile/surface ship/submarine/VTOL airplane back when the latter two were very much confined to the realm of science fiction, Verne's descriptions are almost believable. The plot is a bit weak -- so, the "Master of the World" has this wonderful transforming vehicle that can achieve the awesome speed of 200 mph (yes, that was really, really fast back in 1904, but still...) and this causes all the nations of the world to go mad with terror and declare war on him. And all he really does is drive/fly/sail around thumbing his nose at everyone. You can tell by the ending that Verne was in a very pessimistic state of mind when he wrote this, but it's still a great adventure to pass the time with and get a taste of early 20th-century sci-fi.