Customer Reviews

The Genius Wars

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In this, the third and final book in the saga of Cadel Piggott (now Cadel Greeniaus), the boy genius has at last been able to abandon his life of deception, crime and illegal hacking, imposed on him by his purported father, Prosper English, and has settled down into a much-desired normal life with a kindly police detective, Saul Greeniaus, and his social-worker wife, Fiona. Things are going along just fine, when Cadel's best friend, Sonja, who has cerebral palsy, is attacked, and bad things continue to happen to Cadel and those close to him. Evidently, the malevolent Prosper English is behind all this, and Cadel must track him down.

Like the first two books, this well-written cyber-thriller is packed with suspense, lively characters you can care about, and a complex, intriguing plot that keeps you turning the pages. I was a bit taken aback by the ending, which was not quite what I'd expected. It's not a bad ending, but it left me wanting more. Ms. Jinks, however, tells us that this is the final book about Cadel's adventures. Nonetheless, this is still an exciting, well-crafted trilogy that shouldn't be missed. Be sure to read "Evil Genius" and "Genius Squad" before you start this one!

I am going to start out by saying that I had not read the first two books in this series before I read "The Genius Wars", but there was enough back-story worked into this installment that I never felt lost or confused.

I enjoyed "The Genius War", finding it to be based upon an interesting premise, though one which might have been arrived at by the following recipe: "Toss a couple of Artemis Fowl books and a volume or two of Harry Potter into a shredder, sift together and bake at 350-deg. for 45 minutes... ".

Seriously though, the adventures of Cadel Greeniaus (née Piggott) and his disparate group of brainiac, computer genius friends and associates are quite entertaining -- from criminal super-hacker in training to boy genius computer expert police associate to mild-mannered high-school-aged college computer science student, Cadel has gone through some changes since his debut in "Evil Genius". There is a lot happening in a short span of time here, but the action is not so rapid-fire as to be difficult to follow. The characters involved are described well enough for a reader who has not read the first two books to have sufficient sense of them to understand how they fit into the story and what their roles are.

Readers who are not too familiar with computer technology and terminology might be a bit at sea, but just as readers of Patrick O'Brien's seafaring tales may follow the larger storyline by glossing over the overtly technically nautical passages by saying to themselves "and then they went aloft and did something clever with the sails", readers who are less than familiar with gigabytes, USB drives, CGI, and CCTV can gloss over these bits by saying to themselves "and then Cadel and his friends did something clever with a computer", freeing themselves to follow the larger storyline, which is that of Cadel realizing that his nemesis, Prosper English, is after him again, and how he goes about tracking him down in order to eliminate that threat from his life. In both examples the more technically savvy reader will find a bit more depth in the story while the less technically adept need not feel left out -- the basic human situations of the tale are, overall, more important than the technical details.

As an American I found the Australian locations exotic; as a Californian, I found the California locations familiar -- this was an agreeable combination. I also found Cadel to be a sympathetic character; a youngster striving for normality and a chance to pursue his talents and interests in a satisfying and useful life. The fact that he must face physical danger (and try to protect his friends from the danger they face just because they are his friends) and intellectual challenges to follow that path is the basis of the story.

I pondered a 4-star rating for this book, but while it is generally well-written, it falls a bit short of my standards for a 4-star read, partially for its slightly derivative premise and partly for the mildly tiresome repetition of the "boy-genius-is-increasingly-frustrated-by-necessity-of-dealing-with-less-brilliant-adults-who-control-his-world" theme (which is also roughly parallel to a recurring theme in the Harry Potter stories). Readers who are in this book's target audience might not discern these aspects, and might well be less discriminating in their assessment of the pacing and the cohesiveness of the plot - overall, it should play well with the target audience.

I have to admit, I like the idea of an intellectually stimulating series about a kid who is a computer genius. What I like best is that the author made Cadel very human. He was manipulated from birth and made to believe he was the son of a criminal mastermind. They tried to turn him into a criminal as well. That was in the first book, Evil Genius. Then after a few revelations Cadel tries to reinvent himself. That was a struggle because he'd in essence been brainwashed. I admired him for fighting back against his indoctrination. Most of all he had to get out from under the thumb of his main brainwasher, Prosper English. By the end of the second book, we're given hope that Prosper, who was a fugitive by the close of Genius Squad, would finally leave poor Cadel alone. However in this book people near and dear to Cadel start getting hurt and he suspects Prosper English is once again targeting him. Thus begins his race against time to stop Prosper English once and for all. Cadel's final fight with his nemesis in the Pacific Ocean was exciting. I enjoyed the entire series, and look forward to the author's future novels.

The characters are qwerky, the plot is fast and funny. My daughter selected this book for her monthly book report - the genre was Science Fiction. She has enjoyed this book immensely and the strange characters in it. So far, she's read the first and last books in the series and will not quit until she gets the second book also. It's not as spellbinding as Harry Potter and the characters at times are a little bizzare, but this book definitely is able to satisfy the reading bug for young adults of either sex. It's appropriate for Middle School age - 7th or 8th grade.

Bottom line, yes, I'd buy it again and give it as a gift to others.

I'm a newcomer to the Genius series. It looked interesting. I'm a geek (computer scientist), and this book seemed like something right up my alley. This is the last book of the series, so I wasn't aware of everything that happened prior. Fortunately, the author provides enough background narration as the story progresses, so it wasn't too difficult to understand how what transpires in this book relates to what happened in the previous books. Nicely done on her part.

The general plot is nothing new: kid gets involved in something sinister and has lots of perilous adventures, using his wits and skills to try and outdo the bad guy. What made this particular story appealing (to me, anyway) was its technical focus. A spy/adventure-type novel for the teenage geek, as it were. Well, there's a good story in here somewhere, but it's hidden behind too much technical stuff.

This book relies heavily on technical/computer things and terms. This is expected, as Cadel is a technical genius. The problem is, if you're going to go technical you have to get the details right (or include the right details), otherwise the story loses its feeling of legitimacy. This book doesn't always have the details. I'll give an example: while analyzing some malware that infected a computer system, Cadel determines that it has code for "commandeering a Bluetooth-enabled microwave oven". Problem is, his ability to pull off such a feat in the short amount of time he had would depend on what form the malware took. If it were in the form of a compiled binary, it would be next to impossible, even for a genius. This could be possible if the malware were written using interpreted computer code, but the author doesn't state how the malware was written. Her omission of a simple technical detail about the code used to write the malware made it feel fake.

The other problem with the book's over-reliance on technical things is anything electronic becomes a potential hazard. Since the modern world is full of electronic things--cell phones, CCD cameras, computers, traffic light systems--Cadel and others spend a lot of time running around afraid of what might be monitoring them, or what electronic device might next be used to harm them. It got tiring really fast.

For more mainstream readers this style of writing may be suitable, but as a technical person I found the lack of attention to technical detail detracting.

The other problem was I don't care for the protagonist (Cadel) very much. It's unfortunate, because to really connect with the reader he needs to be a sympathetic character. Cadel has many things in his past that should make me feel sympathy, but what comes across most strongly is his continual "I'm a genius and you're not and can I can do it better than you" attitude. It's hard to sympathize with a brat. I felt more sympathy toward and connection with the other characters.

Although this book is advertised as being the final book ("conclusion") of the series, the author did leave the ending open; the story line is by no means concluded. It wouldn't surprise me if at some point she chose to revisit this group of characters and write about them further. Without revealing plot details, I will say that the book does not end on a happy note. Those of you who like your books to end with everything neatly tied up and everyone safe, happy, and content will be disappointed.

This book was surprising disappointing. Here's what I went into it expecting:

1) More character development for Cadel.
2) More character development for Sonja.
3) More character development for Prosper English.
4) An interesting new character or two, or maybe three.
5) A few old characters returning, each receiving a bit more development.
6) (Maybe) The return of Phinneas Darkkon, whose death off-screen in Genius Squad didn't entirely convince me.
7) Lots of cleverness and outwitting (given the title, more than the previous two books, even).
8) Every conflict completely settled by the ending.

Here's what I received:
(and yes, there are spoilers ahead)

1) No character development for Cadel. (Unless you count getting increasingly angsty.)
2) No character development for Sonja. (She doesn't even show *up* after the first few chapters.)
3) No character development for Prosper English. (*He* doesn't even show up till the last few chapters!)
4) One potentially interesting character introduced (Cadel's programming teacher), who is then promptly thrown away.
5) Loads of old characters returning, none with any further character development or resolution.
6) The conclusion to Prosper English is even *less* satisfying, and a great deal more vague, than Phineas Darkkon's had been.
7) Lots of cleverness, but very little actual outwitting -- Evil Genius was by far the best for this.
8) *More* conflicts introduced, plus old ones re-opened (none of which were interesting as re-opened conflicts, as we had already seen them), and then all of them left dangling at the end in an emotional cliffhanger that leaves you going, "Huh? What is this? How is THAT an ENDING?"

Overall, it wasn't bad -- the technological thriller stuff was great -- and it didn't invalidate either of the previous books, which was very important. But it didn't add anything to them, either. Given that Genius Squad was the perfect sort of sequel -- everything you want a sequel to be -- this was disappointing. It's not that it was bad, it just felt . . . irrelevant. Nothing important happened or changed. In fact, Genius Squad (or even Evil Genius itself) had much better, meanngful, and more conclusive endings.

Buy it if you want more Cadel, or fun techno-thriller stuff, and don't mind that feeling of irrelevancy. I wish I hadn't bought it full-price, but I don't regret owning it. I just wish it had ended conclusively.

In The Genius Wars, the third book in Catherine Jinks' Evil Genius series, the teenaged computer hacker Cadel Greeniaus continues his technological battle against Prosper English, the criminal mastermind who was until recently was thought to be Cadel's father. While the brilliant Cadel is shuffled from one safe house to another, Prosper's old associates launch attacks on Cadel's friends and family, and Cadel takes a leading role in hunting down Prosper's lackeys.

What frustrated me about Genius Wars was the utter perfection of Cadel's character. Cadel figures out every problem, is literally never wrong, and can hack into any system with ease. Cadel's always-right ideas, often formed in seconds, are always accepted by the sceptical authority figures that Cadel seemingly struggles to convince; he never suffers failure in any department.

While lavishing attention on Cadel's limitless genius, Jinks systematically ignores every other character in the book. The series' ensemble cast of characters, whom previous installments explored and made three-dimensional, receive little to no development in this installment. Several new characters are introduced, but none of them are remotely fleshed out by the end of the book. Even with all this focus on Cadel, the book still ends unresolved for both him and every other character.

Perhaps the only non-Cadel character to receive development in the book is Gazo, an old friend of Cadel's from the sham criminal college he attended in the first book, Evil Genius. In past books, Gazo has had to wear a special suit to regulate his anxiety-driven superpower of releasing a stinking cloud noxious enough to bring on unconsciousness. By this point in the series, he is mostly capable of regulating it, and has begun to reluctantly use it as a weapon. Gazo aspires to be a police officer, but fears that Cadel's adoptive father Saul, a detective, will not allow him into the force. Gazo is easily the series' most interesting character, and yet his story lines are all dangling by the end, disappointingly unresolved.

While most of the book's major characters were introduced in the previous books in the series, the book also introduces several characters, all of whom have tantalizing plot hooks that receive no resolution. Cadel is now attending college, and Richard Buckland, who teaches Introductory Programming, pays a particular, strange, and unexplained attention to Cadel. Boyd, another student in the class, is a klutz who always wears fingerless gloves, leading Cadel's friend to insist that Boyd has to be hiding something, in a potential story that is never explored.

There are more students in the class, all of whom are introduced in a "wardriving" surveillance mission: Duke is a hippie with a missing tooth who has lost jobs and girlfriends due to literally spending days at a time playing video games. Egon always dresses in the same sweatshirt and wears the same sullen scowl. Vijay is an easily forgettable boy who shows up to the meeting in an impeccable suit. None of these characters serve any measurable purpose in the plot: they have no motivations, and could just as easily be emotionless cardboard cutouts.

This is all evident of Jinks' tendency to introduce new characters merely as plot objects. These characters are means to an end: they have no story lines of their own, and they make no progress toward being developed characters, rather only as a checkpoint for the plot. Jinks drops hints of development, then fails to follow through on this potential. It's an incredibly sloppy way of writing.

Even while ignoring new characters, Jinks still finds time to ignore the old characters. Cadel's best friend Sonja, a girl with cerebral palsy, is injured early on, and is essentially out of the picture for the remainder of the book. Fiona, Cadel's adoptive mother and newlywed to the detective Saul, does nothing but act confused and fret about Cadel's safety. Even Prosper English, the series' primary antagonist, appears only in the final chapters.

Ultimately, Genius Wars is a readable book, if not an immensely flawed one. The use of technology raises eyebrows (Cadel and Sonja are nearly killed by a rogue text message that activates a Bluetooth connection), interesting characters from past books are shafted in favour of Cadel, and the new characters have no reason to be in the plot. Every theory and speculation of Cadel's is right, and everything in the book is exactly as it appears. The book ends unresolved for virtually every character, and it abounds with messy writing throughout. The Genius Wars is a carelessly written book with flat characterization, few surprises, and a single-minded devotion to its primary character. It's remarkable just how lackluster it is.

This book absolutely stands on it's own. You don't need to read the first two books to get this one or to enjoy it. You do however, have to be extremely patient. If you don't enjoy - and understand - techy stuff you won't enjoy it. Every page is littered with hacking, CCTV, synthesizers, wardriving, and the like. I'm not saying that it's difficult to understand - because it's not - it's just a bit like reading a book with tons of French phrases in it - or Gealic. Some of us can enjoy that - some can't.

If I had it to do over I would definitely start with book one but, still, the beginning was SOO slow I'm not sure if I would have made it all the way through.

I loved this book. You don't even have to recently read the other two, this one explains everything and I couldn't put it down. I was surprised, shocked, intrigued, disgusted, excited, nervous, and overall satisfied. It was probably the best in the series and I dearly hope there's more to come.

My daughter had read the earlier books in this series, and was very excited to get her hands on the latest. She loved it!

My daughter recommends that if you are considering this series, you should read them in order. She says that the characters are developed in the earlier books, and you might not "know" the characters as well if you jump right in with this book.

My daughter recommends this book for smart young teens who like science fiction and action. The action is not physical; the battles are computer-based.