The Crack of DoomRobert CromieOmniClassics · Literature
The Crack of Doom
Robert CromieA startling theory of existence becomes a threat to the world itself.
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About the book
Arthur Marcel's shipboard acquaintance with Herbert Brande begins as an intriguing encounter with a man of unusual scientific knowledge and disturbing philosophical convictions. Brande's assertion that the universe is a mistake gradually acquires a practical meaning, drawing Marcel toward experiments and a secretive group whose intentions exceed ordinary criminal ambition. Speculation about the energy contained in matter joins questions of suffering, pessimism, and whether anyone has the right to decide the fate of others. Personal attachment complicates Marcel's effort to understand the danger and act against it. Cromie's narrative combines the machinery of conspiracy fiction with an early imaginative treatment of catastrophic scientific power, making intellectual certainty itself one of the forces that threatens to become destructive.
- Scientific catastrophe
- Nihilism
- Moral responsibility
Why read it
Read it for a late Victorian thriller that turns a philosophical verdict on life into a technological danger.
English text