Olga Romanoff: or The Syren of the Skies - Tapa blanda

A Sequel to ‘The Angel of the Revolution’

“The spectacle of a wonderland of Art and Science brilliantly outlined against the dark background of a Universal Eclipse.” -The Publisher, Volume 8, Issue 61, July, 1894

“Mr. George Griffith has made himself a high reputation as an imaginative novelist by his brilliant romances, ‘The Angel of the Revolution’ and ‘The Syren of the Skies.” -Sketch

The Empire Strikes Back, The Force, and A Death Star: Originally written In 1893.

Russia and her Middle-Eastern allies go to war with America, Great Britain and Western Europe. Is it current events in 2013? No. It's the premise of a science fiction novel first published in 1894! A dystopian classic of scientific romance from the Victorian era.

Olga Romanoff, the ruthless heir to the long-vanished Russian throne, is determined to seize the hereditary power of her family again. Her seduction and drugging of a young Aerian, Alan Arnold and manipulations against the advanced Aerians (the peacekeepers of 2037), enable her to capture one of their powerful airships. The Aerians are a scientific culture who dwell in a valley in central Africa accessible only from the air. They alone know the secret of aerial navigation and use it to impose peace upon the Earth. The Aerians will not allow any other nation to build up an air fleet but now Olga Romanoff's new alliance with radical Islamists allows her to reproduce her captured airship in secret factories of the Middle East. Armed with her own Russian forces and new-found Moslem allies, their armies and their submarine and aerial fleets, Olga Romanoff attacks Europe and America, attempting to forge a new empire. While upon the seas Alan Arnold wages an intense personal war with an advanced submarine against the Romanoff forces to seek redemption for the carelessness that had cost him his airship and made it Olga's prototype. The Aerians lead the resistance, building up a strong coalition from Britain and America. The capitals of Europe are laid waste in aerial bombardment but as war wreaks havoc across continental Europe, cosmic events are at play which threaten all life on earth. The advanced Martians - with whom Aerian scientists have established contact – warn of the Earth's disastrous collision with an enormous comet. As the comet grows ever larger in the Earth's skies, the great war staggers to a close, with the Aerians and their Anglo-Saxon Federation appearing to win, but will it be a hollow victory? Griffith keeps up the tension until the very last, taking the reader to a shattering climax and denouement.

George Chetwynd Griffith (1857-1906) was an English writer and explorer whose exploits including three journeys around the world, one which took only 65 days to complete. He turned to writing and teaching in the 1880s, and was one of the earliest successful science fiction writers; his works were often serialized in popular magazines. Although later overshadowed by H.G. Wells and Jules Verne, Griffith enjoyed a period of immense success in the 1890s. His STORIES OF OTHER WORLDS, OLGA ROMANOFF, and THE ANGEL OF THE REVOLUTION were particularly popular.