This article provides a great context for why Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is typically sighted as the first Science Fiction novel. There are other SF-style stor

This article provides a great context for why Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is typically sighted as the first Science Fiction novel. There are other SF-style stories that can be cited prior to Frankenstein, but I am not sure any of them truly qualify has Hard Science Fiction. (While I do love Hard SF, I don't hold it above other forms of the genre. I do think that Hard SF is the easiest to define and to separate from other forms of story telling.)