This is a book filled to the brim with recipes for burning away large cities, causing seven-year droughts and stuff like that, all with the help of the Sun.
You know, standard evil genius stuff.
(Whistles and looks around amiably)
Huh? Oh, okay. I’m kidding.
Despite the name, there really isn’t a lot of evil stuff going on in this book. “Evil genius” is a whole series of science books, and I guess the name is an attempt to make science a little cooler.
I’m not going to make any absolute claims as to how successful the publishers are in that particular respect, but I am going to tell you…
What this book is really about
A dry, no-bells-and-whistles explanation of what this book is about would go something like this:
“Solar energy projects for the evil genius” guides you through solar energy and related technology, through 50 illustrated projects of varying complexity and difficulty.
Supplementary text is lightly sprinkled throughout, to explain the concepts in the next few experiments.
I like a few bells and whistles, though, so here’s a selection of the projects I found most interesting:
- Solar heat your swimming pool
- Solar-powered ice-maker (no, that’s not a typo)
- Build a solar cooker
- Build your own “Solar Death Ray”
- Build your own solar battery charger
What this book is not about
This book will not teach you how to convert your home to run entirely on solar energy. Nor will it guide you through any other big solar energy installations.
The main focus is on fun stuff you can do in a relatively short time span. Item 1 in the above list is about as big as it gets.
The book is also not a comprehensive source of detailed, step-by-step instructions. In some cases, you’ll have to use common sense to get things right.
Who this book is for and who it’s not for
This book would be useful for:
- Inquisitive children that are already in school (guided by grown-ups)
- Science-minded kids (early to mid teens)
- Science teachers looking for inspiration for class projects
- Anyone that wants an introduction to solar energy by building a few small, useful things
- Anyone with no, or just a little, prior knowledge of solar energy and technologies that wants to get a decent overview of the subject
This book would not be very useful for:
- People looking for recipes for medium or large scale solar projects
- People looking for detailed descriptions of exactly how to do the projects
- Anyone already familiar with the main principles of solar energy and technologies
So, is it worth buying?
The illustrations and instructions are generally decent, although a few of them wouldn’t have suffered from a bit more detail. In most cases, though, you’ll be able to figure it out with a bit of common practical sense.
Some of the projects (about a fifth) assume some knowledge of basic electronic circuits.
The language and tone of the book is light and easy to read, with good quality information provided.
Provided you are reasonably practically minded and fit into one of the groups in the would-be-useful-for list above – or know someone who does – this book is decent-to-good value for money.
If you know a kid that is having trouble coming up with a science fair project, it would be particularly good for inspiration in that respect.
If you decide to buy it, please consider ordering it from amazon.com through this link (it’s also available electronically as a Kindle book, if that’s more to your liking).
That way, I earn a few cents and you help me keep writing stuff for this blog 
