We know some things to be true: Robert A. Heinlein recruited fellow science fiction writer Isaac Asimov to work in a research lab at the Philadelphia Navy Yard during the Second World War. There is a persistent rumor associated with the Navy Yard--the alleged disappearance and reappearance of the USS Eldridge in the "Philadelphia Experiment" of October 1943. Earlier that year, L. Ron Hubbard was relieved of his U.S. Navy command after a shooting incident in Mexican territorial waters, and was also involved with Jack Parsons, a pioneering member of the American space race program and one of the nation's highest-ranking occultists. And the publication of "Deadline," a short story written by Cleve Cartmill, led to a federal investigation into the possibility that science fiction writers were leaking atomic secrets to the enemy.
Paul Malmont (The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril) takes all these historical tidbits--along with some of the legends about Nikola Tesla--and bundles them into a rollicking novel in which pulp fiction writers become real-life adventurers. Sure, the story tweaks the historical record in a few places, but it's clear readers aren't meant to take all of this too seriously as the plot becomes increasingly baroque, with more than a few ingenious twists along the way.
Malmont's rich characterizations do much to obscure any questions of accuracy. It's because this re-creation of the literary and fan communities that emerged during the science fiction boom feels so accurate that all the other stuff seems, even if only for a few moments, utterly plausible... and remains entertaining even after disbelief returns. --Ron Hogan, founder of Beatrice.com