I have read many of the Edgar Rice Burrows books and many other good authors like Heinlein.
They are all fun to read and develop the imagination but very few of them give any hint to the "how does it work" side of space travel. Certainly the Star Trek series gave some "substance" to the method of space propulsion.
Ideas such as ion drive, warp core, impulse power, matter/antimatter, and "trilithium crystals", all pointed to a method of propulsion.
Similarly, Adamski's book explains "magnetic fields" as the motivating power.

The ion drive is a reality, magnetic field interaction with solar or Earth's magnetic fields have been envisioned. The imagination is still taxed to the limit in trying to figure out how some mysterious crystal lattice could be used to produce or channel energy for the purpose of propulsion. Sodium chloride "crystal" can be used as the lens of an infrared laser, perhaps other types of crystals can direct or concentrate different types of energies. Or perhaps a powerful laser mounted within the space ship can be used to "push" the said space ship along, such craft might approach the speed of light, after all for every action there is equal and opposite reaction. All of these and other "fanciful" ideas can be the starting point for the development of actual operating devices. By imagining, studying, observing, experimenting, and constructing, we can learn more about nature and how to utilize it for our benefit.

If we do not use these steps to learn, then we will not advance in our knowledge or technological achievements.
If we omit imagination we will deprive ourselves of a possible goal and the starting point for achieving it.
If we omit study we will be too ignorant to understand what is happening around us.
If we ignore observation we will not have enough information to understand the results of experiments.
If we ignore experimentation our constructions will be inadequate.

That's my view anyway.

Johannes

Anger
Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry: for anger resteth in the bosom of fools.