A Modern Utopia was first published in 1905 and tells the tale of H. G. Wells and a botanist friend holidaying in the Swiss Alps. By chance they enter a portal that transports them to a planet beyond Sirius that is geographically identical to earth and inhabited by humans. But here the resemblance stops. Instead of a multiplicity of cultures and nations this parallel planet is strictly controlled by a world government of 'Samurai' a moral and spiritual ruling class.