Unreliable
Seifer's book is an exhaustive and exhausting amalgam of things about Tesla. But while it will overwhelm readers with detail, the reliability and quality of the material is suspect. The author's penchant for "perhaps," "no doubt" and "may have" leaves a critical reader uncertain whether, in fact, things unfolded as described. The book is riddled with errors, mostly minor, but sufficient to call into question the author's overall approach. Two examples among many: Tesla did not arrive in America as both the Brooklyn Bridge and Statue of Liberty were completed. One happened the year before his arrival, the other the year after. Eddie Rickenbacker didn't shoot down a single Messerschmidt in World War I, since the company was formed in 1938. Whatever the reason for such errors, they are inexcusable in a work of supposedly serious scholarship. More seriously, the writing quality itself is poor, with too many adjectives doing the work of what should be the right nouns. The style is disjointed. Most disappointing of all, one unfamiliar with Tesla will come away with very little idea of what the man actually did and did not do. Veering from hagiography to skepticism, with detours into mysticism, Seifer's work amounts to nearly 500 pages better spent on other authors.