MAD LIKE TESLA Underdog Inventors and Their Relentless Pursuit of Clean Energy

Nikola Tesla was a pioneering engineer and inventor a century ago. His accomplishments are still felt today, particularly in the area of wireless communication. Hamilton offers a solid review of Tesla’s pioneering and underappreciated accomplishments and ideas in the opening section of the work. From there, he profiles modern inventors in the areas of energy and climate. Narrator Peter Johnson offers an even reading that keeps the material flowing without artificial emotion. He adopts a tone of gee-whiz enthusiasm that matches the novelty of some of the scientists’ ideas. But Johnson’s effort is undercut by the author's use of long, sometimes complicated sentences, as well as acronyms and abbreviations, which are no problem in print but make listening to the book more of a challenge than it ought to be. R.C.G. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine [Published: JUNE 2012]