• Wizard

  • The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla: Biography of a Genius
  • By: Marc J. Seifer
  • Narrated by: Simon Prebble
  • Length: 22 hrs and 13 mins
  • 4.1 out of 5 stars (3,945 ratings)

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Wizard  By  cover art

Wizard

By: Marc J. Seifer
Narrated by: Simon Prebble
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Publisher's summary

Nikola Tesla (1856-1943), credited as the inspiration for radio, robots, and even radar, has been called the patron saint of modern electricity. Based on original material and previously unavailable documents, this acclaimed book is the definitive biography of the man considered by many to be the founding father of modern electrical technology. Among Tesla's creations were the channeling of alternating current, fluorescent and neon lighting, wireless telegraphy, and the giant turbines that harnessed the power of Niagara Falls.

©1996 Marc J. Seifer (P)2011 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Seifer's vivid, revelatory, exhaustively researched biography rescues pioneer inventor Nikola Tesla from cult status and restores him to his rightful place as a principal architect of the modern age." ( Publishers Weekly)

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What listeners say about Wizard

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Tesla was a hundred years ahead of his time

Simon Prebble did a great job narrating the story. The book goes into more depth surrounding the times of Tesla. It gives an overview history of Serbia and surrounding countries. In covering the education of Tesla the author also introduces the reader to the professors that influenced him. Marc Seifer also covers in depth the interaction between Edison, Bell, Westinghouse and investors such as J.P. Morgan, John Aster, Stanford White and others. Tesla health, habits and mental health are covered. Seifer goes into depth covering the wide array of invention of Tesla and many are just becoming a factor in our daily life. It was also interesting to note that there are many more invention that the department of defense placed under a blanket of national security and no information is available on these inventions. This book has only made me want to know more about Tesla and his fellow engineers of the 1890s.

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125 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Well researched book; a bit overwhelming

This book makes use of some amazing records and information from Tesla's own papers. It paints a very interesting portrait of the scientist. It does get a bit bogged down in details of patent rights, electric theory the various players who pop in and out of Tesla's life. But definitely worthwhile for anyone interested in this amazing man.

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65 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Finally a Tesla Audiobook

What did you love best about Wizard?

At last an audiobook about Nikola Tesla. I've always been interested in Tesla, but just didn't have the time or energy to read one of his many biographies, I guess you could say everything I know about Tesla, I learned from Wikipedia. But the Seifer book is enjoyable enough to listen to leisurely, but detailed enough to hold my scientific interest. I loved the British accent on the reader, who I've heard before, but not sure where. He makes everything seem so profound.

What did you like best about this story?

I liked the psychological angle, Dr. Seifer is a psychologist and that tends to humanize Tesla instead of getting bogged down in all the bells and whistles of his inventions. This is really a story of men behaving both badly and wizardly (so to speak). After listening to Wizard, I feel that Tesla has become 3 dimensional for me, while Edison remains 2 dimension. That probably isn't fair to Edison, but he just seems like a guy who invents a lot of neat things, while Tesla has so much more going on in his personality.

Which scene was your favorite?

Everything to do with Edison is great. In someways this is Gates v Jobs only a century earlier, (not sure who is who) These two characters are archetypes and the differences get played out in so many fascinating ways. I also really like the theories about extra-terrestrial origins, which of course remain a little too far out to be taken seriously.

Any additional comments?

The fact that Tesla invented the foundations of the electrical era is old news. What is really interesting is that he is also the father of the wireless era of the internet, cellphones, and even those new swirly CFL light bulbs. The Seifer book paints with a broad enough stroke to encompass that fact without getting stuck merely on Tesla's electricity contributions. I think listening to the Seifer Tesla book has gotten me ready to tackle the Steve Jobs biography next, one tends to flow effortless into the other.

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64 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

fascinating

this was an incredible biography of a multifaceted genius. i came to this from old curiosity but also from recent listen to Pynchon's Against the Day in which Tesla is an element of the story. i became more interested in learning about Tesla and I did not regret the time. in fact a friend who also listened to Pynchon is following up Tesla. it is mind boggling to imagine the world we could have today if only a key turn in history or in Tesla's fortunes or temperament had gone differently. we literally could have leap-frogged the 20th century and have cleaner energy etc. the list of items and technologies he created or envisioned is ridiculous. i chose this bio because it appeared to be the most comprehensive and i'm glad i did. i highly recommend this one if you are curious in Tesla, but also in early 20th century, late 19th, history: the list of people and events connected even tangentially with Tesla is also staggering. and the narration is fine, just at times he does a couple voices that are similar and can confuse who's speaking a little, not major.

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57 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Tesla was a hundred years ahead of his time

Simon Prebble did a great job narrating the story. The book goes into more depth surrounding the times of Tesla. It gives an overview history of Serbia and surrounding countries. In covering the education of Tesla the author also introduces the reader to the professors that influenced him. Marc Seifer also covers in depth the interaction between Edison, Bell, Westinghouse and investors such as J.P. Morgan, John Aster, Stanford White and others. Tesla health, habits and mental health are covered. Seifer goes into depth covering the wide array of invention of Tesla and many are just becoming a factor in our daily life. It was also interesting to note that there are many more invention that the department of defense placed under a blanket of national security and no information is available on these inventions. This book has only made me want to know more about Tesla and his fellow engineers of the 1890s.

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55 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

My brain hurts! But in a good way.

Would you listen to Wizard again? Why?

Portions of it, but probably not the whole thing as it is very long; I might have been better off with an abridged version if one was available. There are certain chapters/sections that I found more interesting and engaging than others.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

I find late 19th- early 20th-century history—with all its stories of innovation, wealth, and bravado—to be intriguing. I liked hearing about Tesla's interactions with other giants of science, industry, and the arts and learning about his friendships, business partnerships, and collaborations. I found the descriptions of some of his theories to be fascinating (though obviously wrong, such as his insistence that intelligent beings on Mars might be able to receive transmissions from Earth) and descriptions of many of his personal interactions to be intriguing.

I have to admit that I did, more than once, find my mind wandering during some of the lengthier science-heavy passages. I wouldn't say that the science in this book is inaccessible to the layman, but it also doesn't treat the scientific sections in an elementary way. Therefore, I, as a nonscientist, often lost focus during those sections and had to re-listen to some, but wound up skipping some as well.

Have you listened to any of Simon Prebble’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

This is my first book narrated by Simon Prebble and I intend to seek out others he's done. His narration was superb. He commands a number of accents that he uses when voicing such people as the Serbian Tesla, the Italian Marconi, and various Americans, Scots, Englishmen and women, and other ethnicities without turning any of them into caricatures. Highly engaging narration.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

No extreme reactions.

Any additional comments?

I thought I knew of most of the major players who passed through Pittsburgh (my hometown) during Tesla's era but was surprised, and pleased, to learn through this book of Tesla's work in Pittsburgh with George Westinghouse and his patent feuds with University of Pittsburgh researcher Reginald Fessenden. I like when a broad, sweeping historical narrative comes into contact with my favorite city.

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47 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Too much of a good thing

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Only if they were a serious Tesla fan... and enjoy long books with way more information than you ever wanted to know.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

This book starts Agonizingly slow and really is a bit like reading a textbook. Tesla is a Brilliant inventor who simply did a poor job of marketing himself. Its interesting to learn that Edison was really the Steve jobs of his age. He did less invention and more 'modification, and improvement' to other peoples ideas.

What didn’t you like about Simon Prebble’s performance?

The reading was a bit dry, but it may also have been the material.

Was Wizard worth the listening time?

From an educational perspective it was worth it.

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35 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Complex Mind, Tragic Trust

I liked the book, but I could have done without the psychoanalysis. At one point, the author, Marc J. Seifer, a distant relative of Nikola Tesla, says that Tesla was a megalomaniac. That term has never been used by the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders). Wikipedia defines megalomania as, “Megalomania is a psychopathological disorder characterized by delusional fantasies of power, relevance, or omnipotence.’” Wikipedia goes on to describe one characteristic as an overestimation of one’s own powers.

Tesla was not delusional. Tesla was powerful scientific mind, rivaling his one-time employer, Thomas Alva Edison; and unwillingly providing Gugliemo Marconi the foundation of wave generation and transmission that Marconi developed into long-distance radio transmission. Tesla wasn’t a dupe with respect to Marconi – Marconi used Tesla’s patents without acknowledging Tesla or compensating him. To some extent, Tesla was able to recover money in the Courts, but that was long after Marconi was awarded a Nobel Prize for Physics.

Tesla was, however, naïve about finance. Given the opportunity to share business interests 50/50 with financier J.P. Morgan, Tesla insisted that Morgan have controlling interest, 51%. Tesla believed that Morgan would take care of him, and that he and Morgan had the same idealistic world view. Morgan must have believed that Tesla’s socialistic view of technology would lessen Morgan’s profits and powers, and he abandoned Tesla – even though Tesla’s earlier inventions were the basis of much of Morgan’s success. Perhaps Tesla, whom Seifer suspects was gay, was in love with Morgan when he gave Morgan control of a key part of his future.

Tesla wasn’t always right. For example, he rejected Albert Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, even though that supported Tesla’s much earlier discoveries about radio waves. At least, I think that’s what Seifer was saying. I didn’t understand about half the science in the book, but that’s because I lack the physics background. By analogy, Seifer’s transmission was fine; but the receiver was faulty.

“Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla: Biography of a Genius” was an interesting listen. Tesla worked on developing technology, such as the wireless transmission of power, that is possible but not widely used. I liked “Wizard” because it opened the door to the future, as seen from the past.

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27 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

An unfortunate soul...

Any additional comments?

The only thing I knew about Tesla was the created rivalry about Tesla and Edison. I sure did get more than that.
If you separate the book into three parts early life/career, career already set, and his final years. I would say that I liked the first part and the third part the best. The book dragged on since the book covered the goings on year by year. only to go forward at times to make a point. then would go back to the year where the author left off.
I enjoyed learning about a great man. about his achievements and his failures.

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19 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Very Disappointing

I've been listening to Audible books for more than ten years and this is the first book I didn't finish. I think Tesla is an very interesting person and his achievements are pretty amazing but the pace of the story was very slow with lots of detail about the fights over patent rights to his inventions and his personal relationships with other scientists. There's also some Serb nationalism and a weird attempt at doing a psychoanalytic analysis of Tesla. Simon Prebble is a great narrator but he didn't have much to work with.

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18 people found this helpful