Facing the Flag

Jules Verne pushes his fascination with machines into darker territory here. Thomas Roch, a French chemist driven half-mad by years of rejection, has invented the Fulgurator, a weapon that can obliterate a warship from a great distance. When no government will meet his price, the pirate Ker Karraje abducts him to a hidden island stronghold and pressures him to build it. Simon Hart, an engineer who poses as Roch’s keeper, becomes the reader’s eyes as he schemes to stop the launch before a fleet is destroyed. The whole story turns on one moral question: whether even a broken man will fire on his own country’s flag. Free to download as a PDF and EPUB edition.