Claudius Bombarnac is reporter who is assigned to travel on the Grand Transasiatic Railway and write about his travels. The train runs through Uzun Ada, Turkestan and Peking, China. Claudius befriends the eclectic band of travelers aboard the train, hoping to find a hero to make his story interesting. When a heavily-guarded carriage is added to the train, Claudius thinks his prayers might just have been answered.

Although science fiction is often regarded as a twentieth-century phenomenon, early masters such as Jules Verne were mining the outer reaches of space for their stories for nearly a century before the 1950s SF boom took hold. In Off on a Comet, Verne follows the imaginary exploits of a ragtag group of Earthlings who are forced to take a two-year journey through space on a gigantic comet.

Although French science fiction innovator Jules Verne is best known for fantastical tales such as Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and Journey to the Center of the Earth, he also wrote a number of fast-paced action-adventure stories. Dick Sand: A Captain at Fifteen falls into this category, following the protagonist of the title through an around the world whaling trip that goes horribly wrong.