The Black Opal: A Romance of Thrilling Adventure was written by Fenton Ash and was first published in 1906. It is a lost race adventure novel set in a medieval kingdom in the Sargasso Sea. Fenton Ash is the first and main pseudonym of UK civil engineer and author Francis Henry Atkins (1847-1927) who was a writer of pulp fiction, in particular science fiction aimed at younger readers. He was involved in a scandal at the turn of the century and sentenced to nine months imprisonment for obtaining money by deception. After leaving prison he dropped the name Frank Aubrey and in his early 60s, following a three-year hiatus began writing as Fenton Ash.