The Psychic Spies

The Dominion of the World (1900) represents a transition from classic Vernian anticipation to the pulp serials of the 1920s and 1930s. It is also the only science fiction work that sought to dramatize the "Transatlantic Peril," positing a fundamental difference of culture and attitude between the United States and Europe. Despite some of its outlandishness, hindsight has lent the world imagined by Gustave Guitton and Gustave Le Rouge (The Vampires of Mars) a certain prophetic quality. In the third volume of the series, after the destruction of engineer Hattison's secret citadel, the secret cabal of American billionaires, led by William Boltyn, hires the sinister Harry Madge, who plans to attack Europe with the aid of a brigade of hypnotists and psychic spies. Only French scientist Olivier Coronal, the inventor of the terrestrial torpedo, stands in the way of the final success of the Billionaires' Conspiracy...