Edward Bulwer-Lytton's 1871 novel The Coming Race, which was later printed as Vril:the Power of the Coming Race. The novel is an early example of science fiction. However, many readers believed that its account of a superior subterranean master race and the energy-form called 'Vril' was accurate, to the extent that some theosophists accepted the book as truth. Furthermore since 1960 there has been a conspiracy theory about a secret Vril society.