Practical Schemes and Scientific Solutions for the Aspiring Supervillain
Ratings13
Average rating3.9
NAMED A BEST NONFICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR BY ESQUIRE “Comic book fans will fall hard for this delightfully daffy guidebook. . . . Exuberant, optimistic, and just plain fun, How to Take Over the World will both surprise and delight.” —Esquire A book this informative should be a crime! Taking over the world is a lot of work. Any supervillain is bound to have questions: What’s the perfect location for a floating secret base? What zany heist will fund my wildly ambitious plans? How do I control the weather, destroy the internet, and never, ever die? Bestselling author and award-winning comics writer Ryan North has the answers. In this introduction to the science of comic-book supervillainy, he details a number of outlandish villainous schemes that harness the potential of today’s most advanced technologies. Picking up where How to Invent Everything left off, his explanations are as fun and elucidating as they are completely absurd. You don’t have to be a criminal mastermind to share a supervillain’s interest in cutting-edge science and technology. This book doesn’t just reveal how to take over the world—it also shows how you could save it. This sly guide to some of the greatest threats facing humanity accessibly explores emerging techniques to extend human life spans, combat cyberterrorism, communicate across millennia, and finally make Jurassic Park a reality.
Reviews with the most likes.
This was a light and humorous read. I liked the framing device of supervillainy and the dry humor. But I think the pop science nonfiction was distributed unevenly with some chapters have a lot more interesting factoids than others. In particular, the first chapters were the best with lots of new info and the later chapters dragged more
Lots of cool facts, things I didn't know at all, so many wacky ideas. This made for a fun listen while doing my chores or when I was bored out of my mind. Definitely don't have enough money to think of implementing any of these ideas though.
Basically delivers what the title promises but I was hoping for more useful plot fodder than is actually offered, but that's more a reflection of reality than a failing of the author so I'm not letting it affect my rating.