
In a dimly lit laboratory, a brilliant but haunted physicist wrestles with an obsession that borders on the uncanny. Eldon Carmichael, recent amputee and heavy drinker, is trying to coax a trio of “bound charges” into resonance—a phenomenon that defies conventional physics and hints at something almost alive. As the humming machines sputter and his thoughts spiral between pain and ambition, he senses a strange strain in the air, a ripple that could reshape reality itself. Meanwhile, a mysterious, seductive figure known as the Black Priestess of Varda watches from the shadows, her dark motives tangled with the scientist’s desperate quest.
Across town, Margaret Mason prepares for a night that could change her life, hoping a marriage proposal will bring stability. Her polished elegance contrasts sharply with Eldon’s chaotic world, yet both are drawn into a larger conflict where an ancient legend of a savior named Elvedon looms. As the experiment reaches its critical moment, the boundaries between scientific discovery and supernatural intrigue begin to blur, promising a tale of ambition, loss, and the thin line between brilliance and madness.
Language
en
Duration
~2 hours (166K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
Release date
2021-02-09
Rights
Public domain in the USA.
A pulp-era science fiction writer whose stories raced from Mars to Venus, he published a small but memorable run of planetary adventures in the late 1940s and 1950s. Much about his life seems to be unrecorded, which gives his work an extra air of old-magazine mystery.
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