Frank H. (perryfran) reviewed on 10/16/2022 + 1215 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 1

This was a really enjoyable and engrossing fictionalized account of the "war of the currents" where Thomas Edison and his rival, George Westinghouse, fight over which current, AC or DC, is the most efficient and safe to use to light America. But before that, Westinghouse is being sued by Edison over an infringement on Edison's patent on the light bulb. Westinghouse hires a young attorney, Paul Cravath, to defend him who really has a tough task ahead of him. Edison is a very smart and dangerous opponent who also is backed by J.P. Morgan, the wealthy financier. In the background of the story, Nikola Tesla is a genius who is busy making his own inventions including being a key in developing alternating current (AC) which of course eventually became the standard. There is also a love story amid all this with Paul falling for Agnes Huntington, a beautiful opera singer who is also a champion of Tesla.

This was a great mix of fact and fiction leading to what is now the multinational company, General Electric. Along the way Moore shows us how this came to pass including the initial dangers of electrification including the electrocution of workmen and the brutal description of the first execution by electric chair. As Moore describes in his endnote, all of the major characters in the novel were real although the events may be embellished and presented in a different chronological timeframe. He did a really good job in describing these characters including the egotism of Edison and Tesla's way of wording the English language. For someone like me who was pretty much "in the dark" about the fight over AC/DC and the players involved, this was a great introduction. Now I'm very interested in reading more about Edison, Westinghouse, and especially Tesla.

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