Evil Genius

Evil Genius by Catherine Jinks

Imagine what Harry Potter would have been like if he had discovered that instead of being born to loving, though dead, parents, he was instead the son of Voldemort.  Harry would be heir to his entire evil empire, and sent not to Hogwarts, but to a school teaching all aspects of evil.  Essentially, that is Evil Genius.  Cadel Piggott gets into some trouble because he is too smart for his own good.  His adoptive parents are encouraged by the police to take Cadel to a therapist after he breaks into several different websites.  His therapist informs him that his biological father is the nefarious Dr. Darkkon, a supervillain currently in prison.  Cadel’s evil father begins to take an active role in Cadel’s education, teaching him the ways of the Force, as it were.  After graduating high school at 13, he is enrolled in the Axis Institute, a school to train future supervillains founded by Dr. Darkkon.

While the setup is very much like Harry Potter, with a poor little orphan boy with horrible surrogate parents being swept off to a school that embraces everything about him, Evil Genius is a very different beast.  Cadel Piggott/Darkkon is a hard character.  He’s not necessarily evil, he’s just super intelligent with no proper outlet for his ideas and interests.  He’s obsessed with systems, like traffic systems and the more complex system of human social interactions.  He learns about them by experimenting with them, and causing problems so that he can learn more.  If that’s by causing a traffic jam or setting off a chain of events that all of his classmates in his high school fail their final exams, it’s all in the interest of expanding his knowledge.  Again, he’s not evil or malicious, his intent is truly to learn, but it’s hard to empathize with him.  He’s almost so smart, he’s another species.

There is a wide cast of supporting characters.  Unfortunately most of these are around for so short a time and there are so many of them, it can be difficult to keep straight.  Cadel’s classmates and the Axis Institute’s faculty are all introduced, but they shift around so much they are hard to really get to know.  They are all pieces on a giant chessboard that Cadel is playing with, and it’s hard to see them as anything but.

Evil Genius is incredibly dense, detailed, and full of plotting.  It is just shy of 500 pages, but I feel much of the plotting could have been spread out over more than one book.  His classmates are introduced and almost immediately killed off.  Some of this is through Cadel’s plotting, most through the intermingling evil schemes of faculty and other students.  Cadel begins to learn more about the truth of what is going on in the school, and feels he needs to escape.  Fearing that he will never be truly free, he sets out to bring down specific faculty members.  Jinks has created a dense web of intrigue that all of the Axis staff are involved in, and you almost need a chart to keep it all straight.

Much of the plot involves Cadel’s planning and scheming.  There isn’t much action through most of the book, but the final 80 pages are pretty much spent running around the country, with speeding cars and whizzing bullets.  There is quite a large body count as well, but all of the death and gruesome scenes happen off the page.  It is never gory, but you can’t ignore that a lot of people die in this book.

Genre is also hard to pinpoint.  The story is full of intrigue and mystery, and lots of computer hacking.  The computer references are almost overwhelming.  It’s fascinating to read, but if you don’t like computers, steer clear.  There are some sci-fi elements as well, mainly through the inclusion of mutants, although they aren’t called that.  There are those that have the ability to create fire (pyrogenics), a set of twins with ESP, and an unfortunate soul with body odor that literally knocks people out.

Evil Genius is a great book full of intrigue, computer hacking, villainy, and some minor mutant action thrown in as well.  It is very dense, full of mathematical and computer references that can be difficult to wrap your mind around.  If you’ve ever questioned how the James Bond villains learned their trade, this is your book.  I enjoyed this a great deal, loving all of the details  and tight plotting.  There is a forthcoming sequel, Genius Squad, which will continue Cadel’s story.  If you are looking for a very intricate, deep story, look no further than Evil Genius.