"Genius: The Game" has been one of my favorite books that I read last summer. It's a short YA Sci-fi novel and is also exciting to read. Why not start off the year with a relaxing easy read?
"Genius: The Game" is about three teenage friends that all live in completely different places in the world who are brought together with hundreds of other teenagers by "The Game". The game is created to invite teens who are gifted with the understanding of advanced technology. The biggest part of "The Game" is it is run by a young Indian CEO who is well known for his great success in robotics and computers.
First, we have Tunde. He lives in a poor village in Nigeria that is controlled by fear their of the military. He is also a self-taught engineer who impresses his village with his small inventions. Everything changes for him when the military discovers his talent.
Next is sixteen year old Painted Wolf. Little is known about her personally, but everyone knows the Painted Wolf for her activism in exposing corrupt businessmen usually located in China. She has a blog where she posts the material she obtains through her investigations. She does all of this under her parents' noses. Her investigating leads her to believe her father is involved with one of the corrupt Chinese officials she lives to bring to the light.
Lastly, we have Rex. A 16 year old self-taught programmer/hacker that some believe to be the best in the world. He's a Mexican-American who has been searching for his missing brother ever since he left. Rex believes he can find his brother by running a complicated code that can only be processed by a super computer.
Despite being spread across the world, all three teens work together due to their similar interests in technology. They all know about "The Game", and are all confident they'll make it in. Due to complicated circumstances, they all have different reasons for wanting to be selected and must help one another to accomplish their individual missions.
Just from reading the synopsis from the back of the book, I was already drawn in. It didn't give away a lot of information (unlike my summary) which compelled me to buy it. Plus, the cover was really cool. I'm a sucker for a holographic cover.
One of my favorite things about this book is the individuality of each character. This book had three main characters and each backstory seemed organic and reasonable. If a main character has a boring personality, it can ruin an entire book for a reader. I also really enjoyed the relationship all the characters had with one another. Even though they all work together professionally, they're all still buds.
From what I observe, this book could easily take place in a close future. The technology is advanced, but not so advanced that this takes place in some distant world. All the technology is reasonably explained even the part where one of the contestants performs surgery on a centipede to turn it into a cyborg bug. Don't look at me like that. It's good, I promise.
If I had one negative thing to say about this book, it would be that it seems just a bit too short. And the unnecessary romance the author throws in there, but I've almost become numb to it now. Back to it being too short- I just felt like everything happened too fast. Days passed by when I thought only hours had passed. I also felt like it didn't end at a good point. It doesn't end in a "I can't wait for the second book!" kind of way, but more like how part-one of a two-part movie ends.
Other than that, I still recommend this book to friends who have an interest in reading. Even if your friends aren't the biggest reader, this is an unitimidating book that might get them into reading. The pages even have pretty pictures on them! Go on, give this book a read.
