Krakatit

Prokop, fever-racked and half-mad, stumbles through a fog-bound city with a lethal secret on his lips: Krakatit, an explosive discovery so powerful it could destroy Prague and beyond. Rescued by his old acquaintance Thomas, he is carried home through the night, where his broken warnings about a box of explosive material give way to feverish revelations about matter, energy, and the hidden violence inside all things. The result is a science fiction nightmare of invention and obsession, in which brilliance and delirium become almost indistinguishable. As his mind unravels, Prokop is drawn into dreamlike confrontations with the imposing Mr. Plinius, impossible corridors and tunnels, and a grotesque academic world where Professor Wald denies atoms and turns science into absurdity. Haunted by childhood terror, murder, and guilt, he wakes exhausted and disoriented, then drifts through further confusion before being thrown into physical danger when a wild horse hurls him from the saddle and shatters his leg. His convalescence in a castle becomes a charged social arena of doctors, nobles, and enemies, where compassion, class tension, and courtly spectacle mingle. As Prokop lies injured and fascinated by destructive power, he grows intrigued by Carson's militarism and by the Princess's cool, commanding presence, sensing beneath the polished surface a world of explosive forces, danger, and desire. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.