---
title: "Nikola Tesla in popular culture"
chunk: 1/5
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla_in_popular_culture"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:04:56.506096+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

Nikola Tesla (10 July 1856 – 7 January 1943) is portrayed in many forms of popular culture. The Serbian-American engineer has particularly been depicted in science fiction, a genre which is well suited to address his inventions; while often exaggerated, the fictionalized variants build mostly upon his own alleged claims or ideas. A popular, growing fixation among science fiction, comic book, and speculative history storytellers is to portray Tesla as a member of a secret society, along with other luminaries of science. The impacts of the technologies invented by Nikola Tesla are a recurring theme in the steampunk genre of alternate technology science-fiction.

== Board games ==
In the alternate World War I setting in the board game Tannhäuser, Nikola Tesla is a major figure in the Russian Matriarchy faction, where his inventions have not only been used to create deadly weaponry but also harness the power of otherworldly forces.

== Books ==

=== Appearances ===
Weldon J. Cobb's novel To Mars With Tesla; or, the Mystery of the Hidden World (1901) is an adventure where Tesla, aided by Young Edison (Thomas Edison's fictional nephew) and a couple of scientists, seeks to communicate with Mars. An adaptation of this "lost classic" was published as a Kindle ebook on Tesla's 160th birthday, 10 July 2016.
In Jacek Dukaj's 2007 novel Ice, Tesla is one of the major characters.
In geomorphologist and author Sesh Heri's novel Wonder of the Worlds (2005), published by Lost Continent Library, Tesla journeys to Mars with Mark Twain and Harry Houdini to retrieve a stolen crystal and confront Kel, the emperor of the Red Planet, on the eve of the Martian invasion of Earth.
In Ralph Vaughan's four Sherlock Holmes/H. P. Lovecraft crossovers, The Adventure of the Ancient Gods (1990), The Adventure of the Dreaming Detective (1992), "The Adventure of the Laughing Moonbeast" (1992), and Sherlock Holmes and the Terror Out of Time (2001), Tesla and Professor Challenger play major roles.
Tesla is one of the main characters in The Tesla Legacy, a novel by Australian author Robert G. Barrett (2006). In the novel, Tesla builds a 'doomsday machine' hidden in the Hunter Valley area of New South Wales that could disrupt all wireless communication on Earth.
In Ron Horsley's Sherlock Holmes novella, The Polyphase-Powered Man (2002).Tesla is the narrator and "Watson proxy".
The Invention of Everything Else, by Samantha Hunt (2008), is a novel blending fact with fiction. It centers on the relationship between Nikola Tesla and a maid at the New Yorker Hotel.
Tesla is an important supporting character in Christopher Priest's 1995 novel The Prestige (he is portrayed in Christopher Nolan's 2006 film adaptation by David Bowie). In the story, Tesla builds a machine that is intended to enable physical teleportation for use in the stage act of magician Robert Angier. The machine is flawed, and merely creates a duplicate of the original item or person. Tesla improves the machine, but warns Angier to destroy it. His mountain laboratory is destroyed by Edison's henchmen and Tesla is forced to leave Colorado Springs, Colorado.
The 2011 novel Goliath by Scott Westerfeld depicts Tesla when the crew of the airship Leviathan come across the blast zone of the Tunguska event. Tesla had come to the site to research the blast and claims it was caused by a weapon created by him, the Goliath.  Towards the end of the book it is revealed that the event was caused by a meteor after all, but Tesla was too unhinged to believe it.
Paul Malmont's 2011 novel The Astounding, the Amazing, and the Unknown launches during World War II with a dying Tesla secreting the key to a mysterious device called Wardenclyffe Tower. The tower ultimately excites the interest the staff at the "Philadelphia Experiment"  U.S. Navy laboratory. The staff members include Robert Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, Isaac Asimov and L. Sprague de Camp.
Nikola Tesla is a member of a fellowship of vampire hunters set in the year 1888 in the novel Modern Marvels - Viktoriana (2013) written by Wayne Reinagel. The fellowship includes Mary Shelley, Edgar Allan Poe, Jules Verne, Bram Stoker, Arthur Conan Doyle, H. G. Wells, Harry Houdini and H. Rider Haggard.
Seth Grahame-Smith's novel The Last American Vampire (2015), Tesla plays a supporting role; he aids the protagonist in the assassination of Rasputin.
In Spider Robinson's 1992 novel Lady Slings the Booze, Nikola Tesla has been brought forward in time (and possibly been rejuvenated) and is resident in Lady Sally's House. Among other things, he has rigged every light in the building to operate off broadcast power.
In Graham Moore's novel The Last Days of Night (2016), which is about the current wars of the 1880s and 1890s, Tesla features as a major character.
In The Accelerati Trilogy by Neal Shusterman and Eric Elfman (2014–2016), Tesla's secret inventions are rediscovered. The race is on to solve the uses of the inventions and stop an extinction level event.
In S. M. Stirling's alternate history Black Chamber series (2018 —) Tesla is mentioned as "T", head of the eponymous spy-organization's technical department.

=== Allusions ===

Some researchers have suggested that the character of Nyarlathotep in H P Lovecraft's short story "Nyarlathotep" (1920), was inspired by Tesla.

== Comics and graphic novels ==