Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla: Biography of a Genius

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

There are a lot of people and names to remember and the audio version does a good job of helping the listener understand who is speaking.

Nikola Tesla was an amazing man and Marc J. Seifer’s book takes great effort to document his achievements in depth. This book brings to life the environment of the times and lays down a clear timeline of events.

Simon Prebble tries to bring some life and personality to the characters in the book. He does a great job of narrating; however, at times his voice acting can be a bit silly.

Reading about a man who changed soo much of our technology...for the sake exploration through invention. It is inspiring to consider he did so much, for the sake of doing it, not for the glory or money.

Seifer does a magnificent job of bringing to vibrant color the life and times of one of the most remarkable and peculiar geniuses of science. A must read!

Haven't read the print version. Audio would be hard to beat, especially as a way to absorb information while on a long trip. Never dull!

Isambard Kingdom Brunel, by LTC Rolt. Brunel's genius was as wide-ranging as Tesla's.

My reaction was one of amazement at the scope of Tesla's achievements. An incredible life.

I strongly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the early years of technology.

Pros:
Learn about all aspects of his life

Cons:
Got lost in some of the technical discussion on his inventions

I picked this up to learn about a historical figure that I have heard contributed greatly to modern science but short of the Tesla coil I knew nothing about. The book took a deep dive into all aspects of his life and his projects. While I am not electrical engineer I was able to general understand his inventions, but got lost in some of the technical discussions.