Steampunk meets Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night and Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest in the brilliant page-turning debut All Men of Genius by Lev AC Rosen. You also may be interested in Lev Rosen's guest post on queer characters in steampunk over at The Story Siren.Science fiction book review: Lev AC Rosen's *All Men of Genius* I picked up this book because of Ana and Thea's glowing review over at The Book Smugglers, so make sure you check out their review as well.
I'd hand it to fans of Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials, Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan, or Tamora Pierce's Song of the Lioness quartet. Rosen.Īll Men of Genius is published for adults, but I think it's going to have high crossover appeal with teens who enjoy steampunk. However, overall, I really enjoyed this novel and I hope there's more to come from Mr. I found my interest lagging a tiny bit towards the end, even as the action barreled forward in madcap fashion. There's a lot going on and it mostly works, though I think the writing could have been a little bit tighter. The plot's pretty action-packed, including mysterious happenings in the basement of the school, a blackmailing student who somehow discovers more of the group's secrets than is ideal, and enough mad science to fill a school full of laboratories. The tone of the book is light with plenty of humor and some romance woven in among the scientific experiments. The reader also gets occasional glimpses into the lives of the Illyria professors and other characters (even a cameo from Dr. Violet's school gang is extremely entertaining, from Jack's experiments on ferrets to Toby's constant quest for a hangover cure (which, of course, requires much consumption at their favorite pub in order to test his prototypes). In addition to Violet, Lev Rosen introduces us to a diverse, well-developed group of supporting characters. She's feisty and she's smart and she's brave, but she's not perfect - certain people see through her disguise with laughable ease and she lets her own indignation get the better of her sometimes. And whenever Violet feels like someone's not taking her seriously, she gets seriously offended. She wants to test out her inventions, not to test out different hairstyles. She wants scientific debate, not pretty flowers.
At 17, Violet longs to be taken seriously. The character of Violet Adams drew me into this story and I thoroughly enjoyed the time I spent with her. So Violet disguises herself as her twin brother Ashton and gains admission, but it won't be easy to keep her secret while fending off advances from the Duke of Illyria's young cousin and dodging killer automata in the labyrinthine basement. Scientific genius Violet Adams wants nothing more than admission to Illyria College, Victorian London's most prestigious science academy. Review copy provided by my local library.
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