The indignity and trauma Sonya ends up going thru in this book make me uncomfortable. Its shown as a bad thing but still was that necessary? ( )

An enjoyable second entry in the Evil Genius series. Cadel continues to grow and change especially with regards to his moral development. ( )

I like this even better than the first book, because the story has more unexpected twists and the characters, especially Cadel, gain another layer of complexity. I'm looking forward to the third book!
A note on the translation: I re-read the first book in the original English and I think the german translation is really good! ( )

I loved the first book in this trilogy, Evil Genius, unfortunately the follow-up didn’t have the same spark. Cadel Piggott is a pretty fascinating protagonist: an effeminate-looking boy genius raised with no moral compass by henchmen. He developed a conscience over the course of Evil Genius, and he spends most of Genius Squad struggling with it: balancing his desire to solve puzzles and exercise his mind with his instructions to lie low and be a good boy. Both novels have a diverse and interesting cast of characters. One of my favorite things about Evil Genius was that a friend of Cadel’s had a serious disability, but this person was valued for their cleverness and intelligence and made quite important to the plot, rather than being a footnote (trying to avoid spoilers here). This is not so in Genius Squad , every mention of this character is defined by disability to the point that the character becomes almost dead weight (Cadel uses some of the drawbacks of the disability to his advantage). Quite sad. The novel was slow to start, though it did introduce two interesting new characters into Cadel’s life in the form of an empathetic social worker and an honorable detective, but by the time he hooked up with the rest of the Genius Squad I was hoping for a really juicy caper along the lines of the first novel. No dice. There was a caper, of sorts, but it was dry as they come. Genius Squad was really a bit of false advertising: there was a squad, but it wasn’t made up of kids or (for the most part) geniuses. ( )

After the Axis Institute is destroyed, young Cadel has the most boring and horrid life of all in Sydney, Australia. After his adopted father, Dr. Darrkon, died and his counselor, Prosper English who claims to be his "real" father, tried to kill him things have just been getting worse for Cadel. Then when he meets Detective Saul Greenuias he suddenly has someone else to rely on besides Fiona Currey, his social worker, and Sonja, his spastic friend. After a visit with Sonja Cadel's whole life changes. He gets invited to Clearview House, with Sonja, that houses Foster kids with special abilities but, it's really a cover of a team to destroy an evil genetic company called GenoMe. This squad is called Genius Squad. The Squad includes the twins Devin and Lexi, Hamish Primrose, Dot( Com's ,a student that was at Axis Institute, sister)and the Supervising members Cliff, Tony Cheung, Judith, Zac Stillman, and Trader Lynch.
When the Sguad finds a way to get into the new Australian branch's computer systems the team works harder than every to find more. Then when they find out that GenoMe was going to kill Prosper English they must try and suck every information out of GenoMe.Then at a meeting with Saul and Fiona he finds out that GenoMe might kill Prosper and Cadel just got so sick because he had to lie to them about Genius Squad. Saul decides to take control of Prosper when he's being taken to Court but it blows up on him when Prosper and a security guard escorts him away and frees him. then Proser disguised as Zac kidnaps Cadel and Sonja with Alias, a literal master of disguise, and Prosper's servant Vadi, a genetic fish freak. He's taken away to Judith's house but then Cadel contacts Fiona and then they try to steal Judith's plane. Then Alias and Vadi are captured but Prosper escapes.
When Saul drives Cadel And Sonja Home Prosper appears and threatens to kill Sonja if he dosen't get Cadel but is foiled by Cadel and Saul. Also, Cadel finds out that Trader agreed to take Cadel in for information on GenoMe. Dot was also a spy hired by Prosper and disapeared once found out. Cadel also finds out that Chester Cramp, the Axis Institute docter, is his father Finally Saul has 3 big announcements to make he and Fiona are getting married, Genius Squad is coming back to hunt down Prosper English and his minions, and Fiona and Saul decide to adopt Cadel. ( )