Robert Cromie's The Crack of Doom is a striking late-Victorian scientific romance in which speculative physics, melodramatic intrigue, and apocalyptic suspense converge. Centred on the possibility that matter itself might be unlocked to catastrophic effect, the novel imagines a weapon of almost unimaginable destructive power decades before the atomic age. Its style blends the brisk plotting of adventure fiction with the intellectual daring of fin-de-siècle science writing, placing it besid...

The rough notes from which this narrative has been constructed were given to me by the man who tells the story. For obvious reasons I have altered the names of the principals, and I hereby pass on the assurance which I have received, that the originals of such as are left alive can be found if their discovery be thought desirable. This alteration of names, the piecing together of somewhat disconnected and sometimes nearly indecipherable memoranda, and the reduction of the mass to consecuti...

"The Universe is a mistake—and I am going to correct it."When Arthur Marcel boards a transatlantic voyage, he expects nothing more than a quiet return to England. Instead, he falls under the spell of the brilliant but terrifying Herbert Brande and his enchanting sister, Natalie. Brande is the mastermind behind the Cui Bono Society, a secretive intellectual collective wielding staggering telepathic powers and unprecedented scientific weaponry. But this is n...

The story revolves around a young inventor named Hugh Kerhill who discovers a powerful new explosive compound, which he names Treharneite after his friend and mentor Professor Treharne. However, the formula for Treharneite is stolen by a villainous character, leading to a series of dramatic events.The novel explores themes of scientific discovery, ethics in science, and the consequences of technological advancement. It also features elements of mystery and adventure as Kerhill strives to r...

Robert Cromie's The Crack of Doom begins as a recovered warning from the edge of disaster and unfolds into a feverish blend of scientific romance, philosophical speculation, and apocalyptic terror. Aboard ship, Arthur Marcel is drawn into the orbit of Herbert Brande, a brilliant, unsettling thinker who insists that "The Universe is a mistake," and into the life of Brande's sister Natalie, whose beauty, intellect, and compassion challenge Marcel's conventional worldview. Their world expands...

Now with an Historical Afterword by Ron MillerFeatured in Ron Miller’s “The Conquest of Space Book Series.” Robert Cromie's 1890 novel contains a detailed description of a spacecraft, a realistic description of the deserts of Mars and some fascinating technological prophecies, such as televised broadcasts of concerts and plays. As most authors of interplanetary stories of his era did, Cromie uses the Martian civilization to comment on his own. Interestingly, the book c...

Science fiction novel, first published in 1895.

The rough notes from which this narrative has been constructed were given to me by the man who tells the story. For obvious reasons I have altered the names of the principals, and I hereby pass on the assurance which I have received, that the originals of such as are left alive can be found if their discovery be thought desirable. This alteration of names, the piecing together of somewhat disconnected and sometimes nearly indecipherable memoranda, and the reduction of the mass to consecuti...

THE UNIVERSE A MISTAKE! The Universe is a mistake!

Though first published in 1895, this eerily prescient science-fiction novella contains the first-ever description of what an atomic explosion might look like. Often compared by critics to masterworks such as Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and H.G. Wells' The Island of Dr. Moreau, Robert Cromie's The Crack of Doom explores the dangers of unfettered scientific experimentation.

A Plunge into Space was first printed in 1890 and continuously reprinted until 1910, earning the enthusiastic plaudits of Jules Verne. On the return trip they discover a stowaway --a Martian girl. The life-support systems of the ship cannot accommodate and extra passenger, and each crew member has some essential skill for bringing the ship safely to earth. The drama builds with enormous tension to a fateful climax as the girl becomes the key to life -- or death -- for the space voyagers.

In the Dawn of Science Fiction: 22 Groundbreaking Novels charts the formative centuries of speculative narrative, gathering Gothic experiment, satirical voyage, technological romance, dystopian prophecy, lost-world adventure, and cosmic fantasy. Its works trace science fiction's emergence from Enlightenment irony and nineteenth-century industrial wonder into a modern literature attentive to invention, empire, social organization, and humanity's place in an expanding universe. Tales of arti...