The past 3 months have felt like a decade, haven't they? It feels like every time you turn on the news or open a social media app, there's something new and earth-shattering going on. I live in Canada, but still, American politics is almost all I hear about, even when people are talking about Canada's current federal election campaign. The names Donald Trump and Elon Musk are everywhere.

With the rapid spin of the news cycle making us all dizzy, it can be easy to forget today what we were shocked and appalled about yesterday, let alone 3 to 7 years ago. That's what makes a deep-dive like this book so important - Siddiqui calmly recounts the past 7 years of Elon Musk's roller coaster of a career so that we can get a clear view of his playbook without all the vertigo. Because yes, there is a method to all the Musk madness.

Siddiqui finished writing this book in December 2024, back when DOGE was just a twinkle in Musk's eye, yet the chapter on his Twitter takeover could have been written about DOGE last week. The mass firings and shutdowns, the "Oops, maybe that one was a mistake... oh well"s, the loyalists from his other companies walking in to take over work they don't really know how to do... sound familiar? You have to wonder how he thought this method worked well enough for Twitter that it would work great on the government of a global superpower. But then you remember the title of this book, and it all kind of makes sense.

Musk once (allegedly) called himself the reincarnated spirit of Alexander the Great. Like his spirit guide, he seems to think nothing of making mistakes that ruin or end people's lives if it advances whatever cause he believes in. This book, while managing to avoid outright attacking Musk, and often giving him the benefit of the doubt motivation-wise, reveals dangerous patterns in Musk's behaviour and mindset that should worry us all.

My one criticism is that the timeline jumps around from chapter to chapter, so at times I found it a bit difficult to follow chains of events. But that's just a small quibble. This is such an important and timely read. I highly recommend it.

This is a very informative and relevant read! Siddiqui did an incredible job laying out Elon's rise and fall of fame, fumbles, controversies, and neurotic narcissism. There is a lot of information in this book but the explanations were always concise. Siddiqui has a wonderful literary voice, leaving the reader with a good balance of information mixed with humor. It's truly wild to see all of Elon's controversies laid out like this. This book is great for anyone looking to read over Elon's doings for the past 20 years.

As someone who has been very involved in the technology and environmental spaces, it's truly disheartening to see all of the lies we were fed under the guise of advancing tech. Like many, there was a time where I wanted to trust Elon's ideas. But it's obvious now that only a select type of person would benefit from his power.

At the end of the day, life is random. We can try to study and predict every outcome, automate the entire universe, but chaos will always exist. We cannot solve all dangers with machines. But, what else can we expect from someone who refuses to accept fundamental scientific understandings and genuinely thinks they can change the laws of the universe?

ARC provided for an honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the eARC!

This was a great book - not quite what I imagined going into it, but very informative and full of footnotes. It's a great introduction to Elon's actions, especially over the last decade or so.
I do wish there had been a bit more about possible explanations for Elon, but I'm not sure anyone really knows why Elon does anything.
The introduction was my favorite part of the book - slightly less formal than the rest of the text, which I appreciated. The rest of the text I think mostly tried to follow a chronological arc, but didn't quite get there. It was repetitious in places, and it could have used a stronger anchor point.
However, Siddiqui is a great writer, so even when the text wandered a bit, it was still REALLY INTERESTING reading. And I'd pick up his next book (if he writes one).

The timing of this release couldn't be better: over the past few months, seemingly everyone is trying to understand what happened to that brilliant genius, Elon Musk, who became famous for his sleek cars and bold dreams. If you haven't followed his path closely, this book will give you plenty of insight, recalling many horrible stories from his career and showing how he has always been the man so many people now hate. Since I am interested in technology, I know most of them and the narrative structure was a bit too chaotic for me, but if you want to learn everything about Musk from scratch, this will be a great choice.

Thanks to the publisher, St. Martin’s Press, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.