The Cosmic Deflector

In 1940s California, scientist Dan Holcomb invents the Cosmic Deflector, a device capable of manipulating gravity itself. His discovery attracts the attention of the Triumvirate, a sinister trio of corporate executives who see in the Deflector an opportunity to reshape the world: they plan to knock Earth from its orbit, holding the planet hostage to establish global dominance. When Dan is kidnapped and imprisoned in a remote mountain stronghold, it falls to his wife Lucile to mount a rescue using only her wits and a radio transmitter as her weapons. Coblentz, writing in the early years of World War II, channels the era's anxieties about technology and concentrated power into a rousing planetary adventure. The Cosmic Deflector is vintage science fiction in the best sense: bold, inventive, and unapologetically earnest about the stakes. The science is wonderfully of its time, but the core drama endures. This is a story about what happens when brilliant discoveries fall into venal hands, and whether ordinary courage can triumph over extraordinary evil.