Young lawyer Paul Cravath gets drawn into the war over electricity – and lots of money – between George Westinghouse and George Edison when he gets to present the case for Westinghouse. The fight gets tough and turns its ugly eye on Paul’s life, too “One doesn't lie down with a lion and get to act surprised if one finds oneself devoured.” Beautiful opera singer Agnes Huntington sets his private life in turmoil as does Nikola Tesla’s involvement professionally.

I admit to have some issues with historical fiction, as it is pretty often rather a crime story or mere romance with just a few ‘historically looking‘ tiny portions. I want to get into a certain time, feel what it might have been liked and be as close to reality as possible. Well, of course, one cannot guess about historical persons‘ exact words for most of their lifes, will have to wonder about some of their motivation – but, still, I do not want them to show up as mere stooges. None of the main characters has been invented and the summary at the end of the book will tell you what is real and where changes have been made. Cravath is ideal to follow along – his questions will often be the readers and this gives the author the chance to explain along. Still, at the beginning I had some trouble of getting into the book – this great TV documentations helped me a lot https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpNCaHpSZbYhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_Currents

and so did taking a peek into the related Wikipedia articles.

While managing to convey scientifical matters, historical events and juridical procedures to the reader, the book’s level targets at entertaining its audience, does not try to go too pretentious. No offence, but one should probably know this before getting started. Anyway, I wish there was more like this and that schools in particular would consider using material the way Moore does. He even manages to extend to similarities in topical entrepreneurs and developments, thus extend questions of morale and ambition.

Looking forward to seeing this made into a movie! 5 stars.