Ryan North is a comic book writer. So he’s spent a lot of time figuring out how a supervillain’s mind works — what they want, how to get it. That’s gone through the food processor of his mind and come out in this book — how someone could really take over the world and do supervillain-ish things within the realm of reality. Want to take over a country like Dr. Doom? You can do that. Want to make a dinosaur? That’s possible with the proper science and enough patience. Need to drill to the center of the Earth? Here’s how.

Of all the books I’ve read where they put the science into science fiction, this is one of the better ones. Maybe because of the premise, maybe because of the style. But all the tips are fun and delivered with panache. Like I’ve said before, I love when comic book writers write prose. They’re always better at it than they think they’d be. And all of the research found within is sound and useful. I plan to use its material in my next book. Better than “Putting the Science in Science Fiction”.