#36: Evil Genius

Evil Genius by Catherine Jinks is a book that at first reminded me of Artemis Fowl. Both are about young geniuses who use their talents for evil purposes. However, Evil Genius is more of a science fiction novel than fantasy, although the science fiction is mostly limited to the gadgets.

Evil Genius tells the story of Cadel Piggott. Cadel lives in Sydney, Australia, and he is introduced as a 6-year-old who has the ability to hack into sensitive government files. His parents don't really know what to do with him because they are absorbed in their own lives and seem to want a child only for show. Cadel ends up making frequent trips to a psychologist, Thaddeus Roth. Mr. and Mrs. Piggott think that Thaddeus is helping out Cadel to resolve his problems, but Thaddeus is actually encouraging Cadel to further develop his evil schemes. This leads to the revelation that the Piggotts are not Cadel's real parents, but that he is in fact the son of Dr. Phineas Darkkon, a criminal mastermind.

Cadel progresses through a series of schools, eventually graduating from high school at the age of thirteen. Along the way, he fails to make friends, but develops enemies, and becomes increasingly resentful of the Piggotts, who he realizes are not his real parents and do not treat him well. Cadel enrolls in the Axis Institute, a school for world domination bankrolled by Dr. Darkkon, where he takes classes like forgery and disguise from an interesting cast of characters.

It is at the Axis Institute where the book takes an interesting turn. Through a series of events, Cadel finally begins to develop empathy toward other people. He begins to question the value of the Axis Institute and the direction that his life is going. He eventually makes the decision to bring down the Axis Institute, which leads to a lot more trouble for him.

Evil Genius is a thick book, but the story was engaging and I progressed through fairly quickly. Cadel's redemption was somewhat rewarding, and the cast of evil villains was intriguing. Still, the author tried to do a little too much with the story with the large number of subplots, but she did set up well for the sequel, as I wanted to find out more about what happened to Cadel.