The Mad Scientist’s Guide to World Domination
Ed. by John Joseph Adams
Whether in fiction, film, or comic books, villains, bad guys, cads and heels are almost always more interesting than heroes. This is especially so when it comes to that sub-species of villain, the mad scientist, those evil genius-types with their hubristic schemes for world domination.
And while “hard science” purists may resent the mad scientist as a damaging cliché with no place in science fiction, the fact is he’s been there from the beginning. Indeed Baron Frankenstein has some claim to having invented the genre. In this playful new collection of original fiction from John Joseph Adams — an editor with a knack for assembling clever, theme-oriented anthologies — we get to meet Frankenstein’s children . . . as well as the children of Professor Rappaccini and Doctors Jekyll and Moreau. It’s a medley of madness that goes from the comic-strip adventures of Professor Incognito to steampunk heroines confronting tentacled Victorian scientists. No longer content with providing a foil for dull do-gooders, these nefarious brainiacs and criminal masterminds are taking center stage and putting the world on notice
Alex on SF 