Most books I review here are fiction books. “Valley of Genius” by Adam Fisher is one of the few exceptions. It’s the story of Silicon Valley as told by the people who shaped it.

The author interviewed many people and used interviews done by others. He then arranged the statements made by those people into pseudo-discussions on specific topics. If someone told something about Atari, Apple and Pixar in their interview, their statements now appear in the three chapters about Atari, Apple and Pixar. The author succeeded to arrange it all so well that it really feels as if all those people were involved in the same discussion about that one specific topic. Those discussions are very well readable and fun.

I was amazed to learn how many of those people were involved in several of the groundbreaking developments made in the valley and not just one.

There were a few chapters that bored me. The stories about Wired and HotWired didn’t interest me that much and the look into the future at the end wasn’t that great either. And it isn’t a complete history. I expected to also read some stories about the Amiga and Commodore 64 for example but there are none to be found here.

This book is a fun and informative read. Sure, there’s probably nothing really new here, nothing you wouldn’t be able to find by just using the search website of your choice, but here it’s all nicely collected and presented.