Agatha H. and the Airship City (Girl Genuis) (Girl Genius, #1)

by Phil Foglio and Kaja Foglio

The Industrial Revolution has escalated into all-out warfare. It has been eighteen years since the Heterodyne Boys, benevolent adventurers and inventors, disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Today, Europe is ruled by the Sparks, dynasties of mad scientists ruling over -- and terrorizing -- the hapless population with their bizarre inventions and unchecked power, while the downtrodden dream of the Hetrodynes' return. At Transylvania Polygnostic University, a pretty, young student named Agatha Clay seems to have nothing but bad luck. Incapable of building anything that actually works, but dedicated to her studies, Agatha seems destined for a lackluster career as a minor lab assistant. But when the University is overthrown by the ruthless tyrant Baron Klaus Wulfenbach, Agatha finds herself a prisoner aboard his massive airship Castle Wulfenbach -- and it begins to look like she might carry a spark of Mad Science after all.

• ISBN10: 1597802123
• ISBN13: 9781597802123
• Publish Date: 1 August 2011 (first published 1 January 2011)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Night Shade Books
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 264
• Language: English

Reviews

[Terri M. LeBlanc]

I’m not quite sure where to start this review. I finished Agatha H and the Airship City, but I’m not quite sure what I read. I’m confused and perhaps that confusion lead to me finishing the book in hopes that my confusion would be cleared.

There are so many characters in this book and they don’t seem to be properly introduced. Everyone is seemingly connected, but those connections are so haphazardly revealed and usually in the middle of a fight or arguement so it gets lost in the action.

That is one plus to this book. There is a lot of action. It keeps moving at a good clip. When you are working with geniuses (called Sparks) who tend to foil their own plans as often as they succeed it requires the hero or heroes to step up and make good (or at least try).

And that is where this book fails again. I’m not sure who the hero or heroes are. There is no central conflict to the book and it’s pretty obvious, I think, from the introduction of Agatha what she is so her scantily clad mis-adventures on board Castle Wulfenbach get old. So basically you are waiting 100 or 150 pages from someone to to actually tell Agatha what she is (she’s a smart cookie, but can’t put those pieces together) and another 100 or so pages after that for another character to reveal her parentage.

This book just seemed to be a hot mess in the end. A girl genius is cool and all, but for a genius she is still pretty dense. There were things that happened to her again and again (falling asleep, waking up in her skivvies at a workbench covered in oil only to be discovered almost every time by a man) and she couldn’t put the pieces together or at least get the idea to sleep fully clothed. I was feeling pretty exasperated by the end. I will give the authors credit for giving Agatha a boy that admires her brains and respects her for them. However, that isn’t enough to keep me reading the other books in this series.


This review was originally posted on Second Run Reviews