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brandidean's review against another edition
4.0
I loved this. It was really interesting, and I particularly appreciated that at the end he lines out what’s documentably true and what’s literary license. The whole time I was wondering about that, and was very interested to read at the end that the lack of information on the main character Is what tipped the scales for him to write it as a novel instead of a biography. I also thought the quotes by the different famous inventors — especially Bill Gates and Steve Jobs — gave it a connection/relevance that I wouldn’t have probably made on my own.
texashuneyb's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
informative
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
librarydancer's review against another edition
4.0
I received an advanced copy of the book from the publisher and NetGalley for an unbiased review.
Fascinating look at the 'War of the Currents' between George Westinghouse and Thomas Edison. This novel, from the perspective of the young lead attorney for Westinghouse, covers a period in American history not often studied or written about. In this highly contested fight, with supporting roles played by Nikola Tesla and the first electric chair, the change from a mostly rural society to an urban one can be traced.
People versed in science -- particularly the Direct Current/Alternating Current debate -- will find this book most enjoyable. General readers, however, will still be riveted by this mostly untold look at an important time in American history.
Fascinating look at the 'War of the Currents' between George Westinghouse and Thomas Edison. This novel, from the perspective of the young lead attorney for Westinghouse, covers a period in American history not often studied or written about. In this highly contested fight, with supporting roles played by Nikola Tesla and the first electric chair, the change from a mostly rural society to an urban one can be traced.
People versed in science -- particularly the Direct Current/Alternating Current debate -- will find this book most enjoyable. General readers, however, will still be riveted by this mostly untold look at an important time in American history.
mhsohn321's review against another edition
5.0
Reading this book reminded me of how quickly life changes. So many of the things we use every day didn't even exist a short time ago. It is interesting to read about how some of these innovations came to be integral parts of our lives.
christianholub's review against another edition
4.0
Historical fiction is not typically my genre, but I found this book a lot of fun. There are vibrant characters, and well-known historical figures like Edison and Tesla are rendered vividly. There's also a good bit of social commentary on Gilded Age New York (more resonant than ever in this, our Modern Gilded Age) and the prose elevates it above genre. Moore is a damn fine writer, as you may have already known from watching The Imitation Game or his eloquent acceptance speech for Best Adapted Screenplay for that same film.
hildamarie's review against another edition
4.0
Really enjoyed it! Especially enjoyed the author's note at the end explaining what was truth vs. fiction. A compelling story that I was not familiar with, so I learned a great deal about the nature of invention and the invention of patent law! :)
sherwoodreads's review against another edition
Thomas Edison vs. George Westinghouse. Nikola Tesla. The race for progress, and of course the horrible people determined to make a profit off progress, are part of this story, which centers around Paul Cravath, the 25-year-old lawyer who was at the center of the long-drawn-out lawsuit between Edison and Westinghouse over the invention of the light bulb, and the war over current. There is a horrible side trip into Harold Brown and his electric chair, whose experiments tortured to death far too many animals before he got his chance at a human being.
I looked forward to reading this book—and I enjoyed it. It was easy to put down, but equally easy to pick up again. I had to think about why it did not grip me the way I’d expected to be by the prospective twining of science versus capitalism, with a very colorful cast in fin-de-siecle New York.
About halfway through I kept feeling like I was reading a novelized version of reality TV.
Okay, I don’t really know that much about reality TV. But when I’ve been in a situation where it’s playing, I can’t help but notice how fake the “reality” is: the dialogue does not feel spontaneous, and yet it is banal in the manner of most real dialogue. It feel like real people are being posed, and told what to feel, and to try to express it, so they do their best, their hemming and hawing and constant repetitions of the same maybe two hundred words of vocabulary bolstered by extremely irritating doom muzak in the background.
This book did not remind me of reality TV because it was stupid or banal, because it wasn’t. I believe it was because the novel seemed to fall in an uncomfortably shifting ground between non-fiction and fiction, I which many scenes read like talking heads when taken from actual historical circumstances, and too many otherwise information-packed, not-very-dramatic chapters ended with somewhat heavy-handed narrative Foreshadowings of Doom.
There are exceptions. The electric chair scene was as disgusting and disturbing as Game of Thrones torture at its most harrowing. Another truly dramatic scene was the fire in Nikola Tesla’s lab, in which the author places Tesla and Paul Cravath—though neither was there when the actual fire happened.
Toward the end of the book, I wondered if the author had novelized a screenplay based on real events. Here was the female love interest in the mysterious Miss Agnes Huntington, whom Cravath did later marry; there was the exciting and deadly fire scene, the timeline was conveniently scaled down for pacing purposes, and so on. It read like a novelization more than a novel, entertaining, a fast read, but never delving deeply into any of the complex figures' psyches. Thomas Edison becomes a cartoony villain in order to furnish some drama, until he suddenly becomes a pathetic object of pity.
Moore includes an interesting essay at the end, describing exactly where he changed the facts, and why. It’s an interesting insight into how writers massage the messiness of real life to extract dramatic arcs, when of course real life is seldom artistically logical.
It’s certainly readable, and full of interesting facts about the famous figures of the time, with some nice descriptive passages about old New York. The characters are a bit one-dimensional—especially Tesla—but then Tesla is such an extraordinary figure I can’t remember reading anything that everyone agrees captures the inspiration for twentieth century science fiction’s Mad Scientist.
Copy received from NetGalley
I looked forward to reading this book—and I enjoyed it. It was easy to put down, but equally easy to pick up again. I had to think about why it did not grip me the way I’d expected to be by the prospective twining of science versus capitalism, with a very colorful cast in fin-de-siecle New York.
About halfway through I kept feeling like I was reading a novelized version of reality TV.
Okay, I don’t really know that much about reality TV. But when I’ve been in a situation where it’s playing, I can’t help but notice how fake the “reality” is: the dialogue does not feel spontaneous, and yet it is banal in the manner of most real dialogue. It feel like real people are being posed, and told what to feel, and to try to express it, so they do their best, their hemming and hawing and constant repetitions of the same maybe two hundred words of vocabulary bolstered by extremely irritating doom muzak in the background.
This book did not remind me of reality TV because it was stupid or banal, because it wasn’t. I believe it was because the novel seemed to fall in an uncomfortably shifting ground between non-fiction and fiction, I which many scenes read like talking heads when taken from actual historical circumstances, and too many otherwise information-packed, not-very-dramatic chapters ended with somewhat heavy-handed narrative Foreshadowings of Doom.
There are exceptions. The electric chair scene was as disgusting and disturbing as Game of Thrones torture at its most harrowing. Another truly dramatic scene was the fire in Nikola Tesla’s lab, in which the author places Tesla and Paul Cravath—though neither was there when the actual fire happened.
Toward the end of the book, I wondered if the author had novelized a screenplay based on real events. Here was the female love interest in the mysterious Miss Agnes Huntington, whom Cravath did later marry; there was the exciting and deadly fire scene, the timeline was conveniently scaled down for pacing purposes, and so on. It read like a novelization more than a novel, entertaining, a fast read, but never delving deeply into any of the complex figures' psyches. Thomas Edison becomes a cartoony villain in order to furnish some drama, until he suddenly becomes a pathetic object of pity.
Moore includes an interesting essay at the end, describing exactly where he changed the facts, and why. It’s an interesting insight into how writers massage the messiness of real life to extract dramatic arcs, when of course real life is seldom artistically logical.
It’s certainly readable, and full of interesting facts about the famous figures of the time, with some nice descriptive passages about old New York. The characters are a bit one-dimensional—especially Tesla—but then Tesla is such an extraordinary figure I can’t remember reading anything that everyone agrees captures the inspiration for twentieth century science fiction’s Mad Scientist.
Copy received from NetGalley
topdragon's review against another edition
5.0
This novel provides a fascinating portrayal of one of the most exciting times in world history, at least when it comes to scientific invention and the birth of technology. It was enjoyable to read, to get to know the real-life characters, and at the same time learn about these historical events in a non-textbooky way.
The plot revolves around three main historical characters: Thomas Edison, George Westinghouse, and Nikola Tesla. The inventor, the businessman, and the genius. All three men were primary warriors in what became known as the “current war”, i.e. the battle over whether or not A/C or D/C would win out in the end. In the middle of this tripod of giant historical figures is a young 26 year old recently graduated attorney named Paul Cravath, a name not familiar to me when I began reading this book but who I learned became one of the giants of the legal profession, largely due to his involvement in the “current war” and its successful resolution (depending on one’s point of view).
This is a pretty fast-paced novel with short chapters and a swift narrative style. The facts are well-researched and the author provides a welcome section at the end wherein he separates facts from fiction. There is also a nice little romance sub plot. But where the novel really shines is in how it is capable of transcending the simple facts of the events during the late 1800’s when electricity was harnessed and helps us to understand the nature and value of the inventive process. A relatively brief 15 years in our history saw not only many new discoveries related to electricity, but also the birth of new ideas on how we would go about “inventing” in the future. The notion of an eccentric lone inventor working in his personal lab quickly morphs into the business of inventing. Really, it’s the beginnings of how technology is advanced today.
This was what made me interested to read this book. But in addition, thanks to having Paul Cravath as the protagonist character, I also got to witness the concurrent development of the legal profession, seeing it change quickly from a cottage industry into a legal “factory” with Cravath’s introduction of the idea of associate attorneys and building an entire legal firm. Pretty cool.
I’ve read this author’s previous novel, [b:The Sherlockian|7810380|The Sherlockian|Graham Moore|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1289519849s/7810380.jpg|10819949] and enjoyed it a lot and I’ve also seen the “The Imitation Game” movie for which he was the screenwriter. Clearly, much like the characters he writes about, Graham Moore is a name to watch in the future.
Highly recommended!
The plot revolves around three main historical characters: Thomas Edison, George Westinghouse, and Nikola Tesla. The inventor, the businessman, and the genius. All three men were primary warriors in what became known as the “current war”, i.e. the battle over whether or not A/C or D/C would win out in the end. In the middle of this tripod of giant historical figures is a young 26 year old recently graduated attorney named Paul Cravath, a name not familiar to me when I began reading this book but who I learned became one of the giants of the legal profession, largely due to his involvement in the “current war” and its successful resolution (depending on one’s point of view).
This is a pretty fast-paced novel with short chapters and a swift narrative style. The facts are well-researched and the author provides a welcome section at the end wherein he separates facts from fiction. There is also a nice little romance sub plot. But where the novel really shines is in how it is capable of transcending the simple facts of the events during the late 1800’s when electricity was harnessed and helps us to understand the nature and value of the inventive process. A relatively brief 15 years in our history saw not only many new discoveries related to electricity, but also the birth of new ideas on how we would go about “inventing” in the future. The notion of an eccentric lone inventor working in his personal lab quickly morphs into the business of inventing. Really, it’s the beginnings of how technology is advanced today.
This was what made me interested to read this book. But in addition, thanks to having Paul Cravath as the protagonist character, I also got to witness the concurrent development of the legal profession, seeing it change quickly from a cottage industry into a legal “factory” with Cravath’s introduction of the idea of associate attorneys and building an entire legal firm. Pretty cool.
I’ve read this author’s previous novel, [b:The Sherlockian|7810380|The Sherlockian|Graham Moore|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1289519849s/7810380.jpg|10819949] and enjoyed it a lot and I’ve also seen the “The Imitation Game” movie for which he was the screenwriter. Clearly, much like the characters he writes about, Graham Moore is a name to watch in the future.
Highly recommended!
irishlassofcork's review against another edition
4.0
I received this as an ebook from Netgalley. I honestly decided to read this book purely for two reasons: historical fiction + an intriguing cover. I have never read anything by the author and wasn't sure I would be interested in the premise. I was quickly proven wrong. The characters, the plot, the suspense. This book brought so much to the table and I just could not put it down. I lost sleep because I wanted to keep reading! Who would have known that Edison and Westinghouse and all the bickering between them would have been so fascinating? Some other things I appreciated: the accessibility of the science, Agnes Huntington! (she brought some much needed light to the story. Ha. Light), and some of the after prose (post Edison retiring). I have heard rumors that a movie of this is being made... I hope they don't ruin it.