John Malcolm (5) (1929–)

Read this many years ago and immediately wished I hadn't. Tesla's last great invention turns out to be some magical, hand-wavy thingy that will unify all sorts of stuff. The Great Powers take exception to this and lay siege to CERN in Geneva, where the thingy is about to be activated. Russian and British combat jets spend five or so chapters in a holding pattern waiting for a Thing to happen. This strained my credulity beyond breaking point: contemporary combat aircraft drink fuel at a show more prodigious rate and could not circle Geneva for an indefinite period; and that's assuming that the Swiss, who guard their neutrality jealously, would let them violate their airspace. After all, Switzerland is the country that made it impossible for Hitler to invade them, much as he would have liked to; what measures they would take against the world economy faced with such provocation hardly bear thinking about. Which the author obviously didn't. show less