A Journey to Other Worlds is a tale about life in the year 2000 on the planets Saturn and Jupiter. Space travel is achieved through apergy, an anti-gravitational energy force. Jupiter proves to be a jungle world, with flesh-eating plants, vampire bats, giant snakes and mastodons, and flying lizards. Saturn, in contrast, is an ancient world of silent spirits. The spirit beings provide the explorers with foresight of their own deaths.

John Jacob Astor IV (1864-1912) was an American businessman, real estate builder, investor, inventor, writer, lieutenant colonel in the Spanish–American War, and a prominent member of the Astor family. Among Astor's accomplishments was A Journey in Other Worlds, a science fiction novel about life in the year 2000 on the planets Saturn and Jupiter.