Title spotlight - "The Mad Scientist's Guide to World Dominion" edited by John Joseph Adams

Dr. Henry Jekyll, Dr. Victor Frankenstein and Dr. Ox filled my early reading years with tales of mad experiments and bizarre scientific researches. These were stories that kept me almost breathless, adventures that fueled my dreams. Later I didn’t encounter many mad scientists on my readings and looking back at the wonderful time of childhood books it is a bit of a shame. Of course, there were the delightfully and hilariously wacko adventures of Pinky and the Brain that I fully enjoyed, but those are in a different league, both in media and approach. However, the opening line of this lovely TV show - Pinky: “Gee, Brain, what do you want to do tonight?” The Brain: “The same thing we do every night, Pinky—try to take over the world!” – receives 22 further responses in John Joseph Adams’ upcoming anthology from Tor Books. “The Mad Scientist’s Guide to World Dominion” is a collection of stories dedicated to the evil and twisted minds of the researchers and the attempts of bringing the world under their power. And since I do miss the crazy doctors of my childhood readings I am quite excited by John Joseph Adams’ new anthology and the rightful opportunity it gives to these geniuses to take the central stage. More information on their plans of taking over the world can be found at this website.

Mad scientists have never had it so tough. In super-hero comics, graphic novels, films, TV series, video games and even works of what may be fiction, they are besieged by those who stand against them, devoid of sympathy for their irrational, megalomaniacal impulses to rule, destroy or otherwise dominate the world as we know it.

Dr. Frankenstein was the first truly mad scientist of the modern era. And where did it get him? Destroyed by his own creation. And Jules Verne’s Captain Nemo, a man ahead of his time as well as out of his head, what did he do to deserve persecution?

Even Lex Luthor, by all counts a genius, has been hindered not once, not twice, but so many times that it has taken hundreds of comic books, a few films and no fewer than ten full seasons of a television series to keep him properly thwarted.

It’s just not fair. So those of us who are so twisted and sick that we love mad scientists have created this guide. Some of the names have been changed to protect the guilty, but you’ll recognize them. But it doesn’t matter. This guide is not for you. It’s for them, the underhanded, over-brained, paranoiacs who so desperately need our help.

What lies behind those unfocused, restless eyes and drooling, wicked grins? Why–and how–do they concoct their nefarious plots? Why are they so set on taking over the world? If you’ve ever asked yourself any of these questions, you’re in luck: Because we are exposing their secrets, aiding and abetting their evil. It all awaits, within.

Watch out, world!

All original, all nefarious, all conquering tales from the megalomaniacal pens of DIANA GABALDON, AUSTIN GROSSMAN, SEANAN McGUIRE, NAOMI NOVIK, DANIEL H. WILSON and 17 OTHER EVIL GENIUSES

Foreword by Chris Claremont

“Professor Incognito Apologizes: an Itemized List” by Austin Grossman

“Father of the Groom” by Harry Turtledove

“Laughter at the Academy” by Seanan McGuire

“Letter to the Editor” by David D. Levine

“Instead of a Loving Heart” by Jeremiah Tolbert

“The Executor” by Daniel H. Wilson

“The Angel of Death Has a Business Plan” by Heather Lindsley

“Homo Perfectus” by David Farland

“Ancient Equations” by L. A. Banks

“Rural Singularity” by Alan Dean Foster

“Captain Justice Saves the Day” by Genevieve Valentine

“The Mad Scientist’s Daughter” by Theodora Goss

“The Space Between” by Diana Gabaldon

“Harry and Marlowe Meet the Founder of the Aetherian Revolution” by Carrie Vaughn

“Blood and Stardust” by Laird Barron

“A More Perfect Union” by L. E. Modesitt, Jr.

“Rocks Fall” by Naomi Novik

“We Interrupt This Broadcast” by Mary Robinette Kowal

“The Last Dignity of Man” by Marjorie M. Liu

“Pittsburg Technology” by Jeffrey Ford

“Mofongo Knows” by Grady Hendrix

“The Food Taster’s Boy” by Ben Winters