Solarion
Author: Edgar Fawcett
Written: 1889
Publisher: MobileRead.com
Published: 2022
eBook Creatorr: e.c.menting
eBook created: 2022-06-25
Keywords: Science Fiction, Weird Fiction, Super-intelligence
Copyright: Public domain worldwide
Source: MobileRead
[Kenneth Stafford] was a keen scientist looking to find a connection
between electricity and its possible effect on the mind. He tracks down a
German scientist whose work was never published and uses his theories to
enhance the mind power of a specially selected breed of dog. Stafford
succeeds beyond his expectations with Solarion, but encounters moral and
philosophical problems that he had not foreseen. He is also in love with
Celia who rejects his marriage proposal, and life gets more complicated
when Celia becomes besotted with Solarian.
The book describes itself as a Romance and there is a love story that
holds it all together. Developments in electrical engineering in the late
19th century were quickly coming on-stream, and the story would hold some
fascination for the imaginative reader. This, together with the
unexpected issues thrown up by questions of love and loyalty, by
metaphysics and spiritualism, takes this story along many avenues. The
story has some mystery, some imagination, and it examines the tropes of a
man-made monster: Solarion is doomed to a life of loneliness.
Fawcett tells a good story and he examines themes that take it out of the
well-trodden paths of romance and adventure.
(— Baswood, Goodreads review)