46 reviews for:

The Man Who Invented Motion Pictures: A True Tale of Obsession, Murder, and the Movies

Paul Fischer

3.55 AVERAGE

jimhaberl's review

4.5

inspiring mysterious sad medium-paced

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Ostensibly a history of Louis LeProce’s invention of the first motion pictures, this book is also a great historical mystery that aims to solve LePrince’s disappearance just before he unveiled his successful machine. Amazingly, for a 100+ year old mystery, the solution at the end feels probable. Way more fun and interesting to read than a book with this much information should be!

kleonard's review

1.0

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This book is a hot mess. Has it been edited? It's full of hyperbole and false drama and purple prose. The author's research is frequently questionable and sometimes lacking altogether, and it's presented in a way that gimmicky and tabloidesque.

rwilkinson's review

3.5

informative mysterious slow-paced

reflectiverambling_nalana's review

3.5

adventurous informative mysterious medium-paced

jholscher's review

5.0

adventurous challenging dark informative inspiring mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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Excellent history that read like a novel. More fodder for the Edison was a reprehensible human being crowd! 

bizzerg's review

5.0

informative inspiring tense medium-paced

saintdoormatius's review

5.0

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An incredible book that is equally compelling and informative. The only very minor quibble I have with the book has to do with the audiobook version: the narrator for the audiobook is fantastic, first and foremost! However, as a writer, Fischer tends to sprinkle his passages throughout the text with snippets of quotes from letters, patents, and other documents...which is fine in print. But, for the audio version, this leads to the narrator constantly saying "quote" "unquote" for these passages, and it happens numerous times throughout. Once you get into the rhythm of the book itself, it's not a problem, but there are moments where it disrupts the poignancy of a comment or the building of tension.

Regardless, go read this book! It's wonderful!

chazzerguy's review

2.0

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Gave up about halfway through. The book gets really bogged down in minutia about patent applications/denials, mechanical details details about the early cameras, and other details that just kinda killed all the early momentum of the book. Kinda disappointing as it sounds like igt could be a really interesting story.

madmads126's review

3.5

dark informative mysterious reflective slow-paced

lawren83's review

4.0

challenging dark informative mysterious sad slow-paced