Orville Voth's The Silent Force is a mainstream science fiction novel. At its center is a brilliant nuclear physicist, Jack Hart, who designs a miniature linear accelerator. His research takes a startling turn when the accelerator fails to effect nuclear particles in a cyclotron but creates a powerful force field instead. Jack learns to focus and project this immense power and then sets about to determine just how strong it is. He surreptitiously applies the force field to US military ICBM launches at White Sands, a hurricane off the coast of Florida, and volcanic eruption of Mount St. Helens (predating its 1980 explosion). These experiments are so successful that Jack believes his force field may prevent nuclear fission and, therefore, nuclear war. He learns that India is about to explode a nuclear device so he makes plans to secretly reach the Thar Desert, the site of the Indian test. There he will risk his life to determine whether the silent force can prevent a nuclear detonation.