As promised, here is the book review for a book I finished a little while ago. It was a fun read, and I’ll probably be reading the sequel, but really it’s sci-fi for frat boys.
Where the Hell is Tesla? by Rob Dircks
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
It’s been a long time since I managed to read a book basically in one day, but this one took me less than 24 hours. It’s a fun, kind of campy read.
Basically, two best friends (who are also kind of idiots) happen upon the last invention of Nikola Tesla, but without the full instructions, it lands them in an unending hallway with access to infinite universes of the multiverse. The twist: Tesla is still alive and they have to rescue him in order to prevent the “end of everything.”
It’s written in an epistolary format through emails that the main character writes initially to the friend who goes with him, and then to Julie, the love of his life who he apparently let slip away. The letter style allows for an interesting first-person perspective, but because the character is really trying to let Julie (and subsequently us, the readers) get a full grasp of what’s happening, it occasionally slips into actual action scenes with strange side notes that somehow both pull the reader out of what’s happening and also add to the tension.
The most jarring email/narration moment was when he told what was happening and then did the whole, “wait, let me tell you how I got here” thing they sometimes do in movies. While it did add to the tension, the emails following seemed to forget that these events were in the past. Starting the email with a reaction as if the action was happening in real-time can’t work if five emails before you’ve told me something that happened days later and introduced a flashback.
Having said that, I really liked the casual tone and the banter between the characters. And the lists! The main character had a serious love of lists and adds them into his emails as often as possible.
It was nice to see how all the pieces fit together, even though they were seemingly random up until the last few scenes. It was fun, campy, and quick, which is a good combination for a light, summer read after a long bout of not reading. I’d recommend it for a casual reader who enjoys sci-fi, but probably also beer pong. It has that kind of vibe.
