THE VIOLET FLAME (1899) ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION

THE VIOLET FLAME (1899) – Here is another of the science fiction works written by THE Frederick Thomas Jane, of Jane’s Guides fame. Previously, Balladeer’s Blog reviewed Jane’s works The Incubated Girl and Guesses at Futurity.

This tale is set in the near future. A megalomaniacal scientist named Mirzabeau has devised a theory stating that the Earth and, indeed, our entire solar system, is alive.

To demonstrate the truth of his theory, Professor Mirzabeau uses his devices to manipulate the Earth itself. He causes global disasters and reduces mountains and buildings to near nothingness, leaving behind a miniature argon replica of each destroyed object.

With the world trembling before his power, Mirzabeau demands that all nations cede their sovereignty to him. He is acknowledged as the ruler of the world with the title the Beast.

The professor tightens his grip on power with each passing day, ruthlessly crushing any attempt at defiance. As the villain gathers a small circle of people around him that he considers allies, he provides the small group with green disks to wear on their foreheads.

Those disks are like his own and protect the wearer from Mirzabeau’s devices which let him control the “living” Earth. One such member of the professor’s inner circle is the story’s narrator, Lester. Another one is Landy Baker, a beautiful American heiress whom the Beast lusts after. 

Landy Baker, more courageous than Lester, covertly makes a counterfeit copy of Mirzabeau’s own green disk and switches the copy for Lester’s actual protective forehead disk. The next time the villain wields his devices to control the Earth organism his lack of protection results in him being destroyed.

There is still a lot of story to go, however. Landy, Lester and a few other figures hoping to restore the world to normal fail to completely master the late Beast’s inventions and chaos reigns across the globe, complete with daily riots.

Even worse, Landy and the others discover a link between one of Mirzabeau’s machines and a comet made of violet flame which is large enough to wipe out life on Earth. The decision is made to destroy the machine, but only then do Landy and her allies realize that the Beast was using the machine to hold off the collision between the comet and our planet. 

(Presumably the late professor considered this machine an ace in the hole for himself, and he could threaten to let the comet collide with the Earth if further demands of his were not met.)

At length, the comet reaches our planet and its violet flames plus its mass cause earthquakes, tidal waves and more around the globe. In the aftermath of all this, Landy and Lester are the sole survivors.

With false optimism, they have children as the years roll along and Jane’s closing image in The Violet Flame is of Lester and Landy tending crops while their children play with their “toys” – small, human-shaped chunks of argon which used to be human beings.

In my opinion, the downbeat ending is the only thing that makes this work memorable. The bulk of the story was handled in a loose and unengaging way, plus the theoretical science behind the professor’s manipulation of the “living” Earth and solar system is not very convincing. I still hold that The Incubated Girl is Jane’s best work of science fiction, plus it has a bit of a horror feel, too.

FOR MORE “ANCIENT” SCIENCE FICTION CLICK HERE.