The symbolism of The Invincible is held together by multiple allusions to the gothic story. If anything, the science fiction setting of the novel makes the traditionally haunting elements of the genre—mystery, madness, death—even more ghastly. The derelict tower of the Condor, with its sickening spectacle of insanity and decay; the ghostly "corpsespy," which the doctors use to probe the memories of deceased crewmen; the echoes of Frankensteinian insubordination in the gigantic Cyclops; together with the almost Faustian retribution for the lack of humility in search for knowledge—all these elements contribute in original and often shocking ways to the gothic tradition which the novel subtly evokes.

Another clear allusion is evident in the name of the spaceship since, in the end, the mighty cruiser is proven far from invincible. Much like in Percy Bysshe Shelley's "Ozymandias," the desert of Regis...