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A review by trike
Genius, Volume 1 by Adam Freeman, Marc Bernardin
4.0
I thought about giving this 3 stars rather than 4 because it's too short. This feels like a comic book adaptation of a novel, more Cliff's Notes than complete. That said, it's really well written and the concept is interesting, so I decided to tip it over into 4-star land.
The basic idea is that the next military genius arises in the 'hood, specifically South Central Los Angeles, and it's a teenage girl named Destiny Ajaye. (Is that a shout-out to comedian Franklin Ajaye?) Events conspire to make her life a living hell, but instead of becoming self-destructive she turns her brilliance to getting revenge. At first this plays out in her gaming the system but she soon sets her sights higher. She wants to start a war with the police who killed her mother.
Thing is, she needs an army for that, so she begins to systematically use social engineering to achieve that end. For people who are gentler, such as the computer nerd she befriends in grade school, she uses persuasion. For criminals she uses violence and sex. She morphs her demeanor to suit the situation. She manipulates people for her own ends and they don't even realize they're being used because she knows exactly which buttons to push to get people to believe that what she wants is what they want.
I happen to know quite a few geniuses -- as in actual, out-think-you, always-five-steps-ahead-of-you geniuses -- so this rang true to me.
Being brilliant doesn't mean that you are rational. It frequently goes hand-in-hand with psychopathy. This is an extreme example, but when you are used to being the smartest person in the room all the time and it feels like the entire world is full of Joey Tribbianis, it does tend to make you think you're homo superior.
In my experience, genius comes in two distinct flavors: Mr. Spock/Sheldon Cooper types, and Genghis Khan types. Here we have the latter. The criminals who hack your computer or the guys at Enron are extremely smart; many of them are authentic geniuses. They just lack a conscience or empathy for others. For real-life examples, I refer you to [b:The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron|113576|The Smartest Guys in the Room The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron|Bethany McLean|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1309204701s/113576.jpg|1604] and [b:The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry|12391521|The Psychopath Test A Journey Through the Madness Industry|Jon Ronson|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1364166270s/12391521.jpg|14262366].
Destiny's story is an extreme example, but it's not actually impossible. You put someone like that in a situation that causes them to cross the line from productive member of society to destroyer and conqueror and you end up with Destiny.
The scariest part is the ending, which every review I've read so far has either missed or didn't think it pertinent to comment on: the war she starts with the LAPD, her dismembering of the local gangs as her army, the using of her friends and neighbors, the all-out street war she engages in with the National Guard... All of these are merely the prologue to her endgame. She literally did all of this, killed all of those people, just so she would get the attention of the federal government.
The entire story that you read here was preamble to her taking over the United States itself. What we have here is the origin story of a new Genghis Khan in the modern era, but it's merely the opening salvo of her ultimate goal.
Eep.
Some of this skates dangerously close to eugenics and if author Mark Bernardin were white instead of black, I could see someone calling it racist. But it's not. What we have here is a masterfully-told tale of an interesting idea that could conceivably happen if these specific events occurred. The fact that the confrontational aspects of this are currently playing out in the real world in places like Ferguson and Chicago underscores how this is just one step removed from reality.
Look at someone like Bree Newsome, the young black woman who took down the Confederate flag from in front of the Columbia, South Carolina, statehouse. She is articulate, intelligent, charismatic and willing to actually take big risks to accomplish her goals. Destiny Ajaye is the angrier Bree Newsome turned up to 11.
As I said up top, the only real failing of this story is that it is way, WAY too short. This needs to be an epic-length novel or a TV series like The Wire.
This is really good. Nearly as good as [b:100 Bullets|11117109|100 Bullets The Deluxe Edition Book I|Brian Azzarello|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388213748s/11117109.jpg|16039695]. The art is likewise terrific, although I did want it to sometimes be a tad less stylized. That's such a minor point, though, it's hardly worth mentioning.
The basic idea is that the next military genius arises in the 'hood, specifically South Central Los Angeles, and it's a teenage girl named Destiny Ajaye. (Is that a shout-out to comedian Franklin Ajaye?) Events conspire to make her life a living hell, but instead of becoming self-destructive she turns her brilliance to getting revenge. At first this plays out in her gaming the system but she soon sets her sights higher. She wants to start a war with the police who killed her mother.
Thing is, she needs an army for that, so she begins to systematically use social engineering to achieve that end. For people who are gentler, such as the computer nerd she befriends in grade school, she uses persuasion. For criminals she uses violence and sex. She morphs her demeanor to suit the situation. She manipulates people for her own ends and they don't even realize they're being used because she knows exactly which buttons to push to get people to believe that what she wants is what they want.
I happen to know quite a few geniuses -- as in actual, out-think-you, always-five-steps-ahead-of-you geniuses -- so this rang true to me.
Being brilliant doesn't mean that you are rational. It frequently goes hand-in-hand with psychopathy. This is an extreme example, but when you are used to being the smartest person in the room all the time and it feels like the entire world is full of Joey Tribbianis, it does tend to make you think you're homo superior.
In my experience, genius comes in two distinct flavors: Mr. Spock/Sheldon Cooper types, and Genghis Khan types. Here we have the latter. The criminals who hack your computer or the guys at Enron are extremely smart; many of them are authentic geniuses. They just lack a conscience or empathy for others. For real-life examples, I refer you to [b:The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron|113576|The Smartest Guys in the Room The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron|Bethany McLean|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1309204701s/113576.jpg|1604] and [b:The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry|12391521|The Psychopath Test A Journey Through the Madness Industry|Jon Ronson|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1364166270s/12391521.jpg|14262366].
Destiny's story is an extreme example, but it's not actually impossible. You put someone like that in a situation that causes them to cross the line from productive member of society to destroyer and conqueror and you end up with Destiny.
The scariest part is the ending, which every review I've read so far has either missed or didn't think it pertinent to comment on: the war she starts with the LAPD, her dismembering of the local gangs as her army, the using of her friends and neighbors, the all-out street war she engages in with the National Guard... All of these are merely the prologue to her endgame. She literally did all of this, killed all of those people, just so she would get the attention of the federal government.
The entire story that you read here was preamble to her taking over the United States itself. What we have here is the origin story of a new Genghis Khan in the modern era, but it's merely the opening salvo of her ultimate goal.
Eep.
Some of this skates dangerously close to eugenics and if author Mark Bernardin were white instead of black, I could see someone calling it racist. But it's not. What we have here is a masterfully-told tale of an interesting idea that could conceivably happen if these specific events occurred. The fact that the confrontational aspects of this are currently playing out in the real world in places like Ferguson and Chicago underscores how this is just one step removed from reality.
Look at someone like Bree Newsome, the young black woman who took down the Confederate flag from in front of the Columbia, South Carolina, statehouse. She is articulate, intelligent, charismatic and willing to actually take big risks to accomplish her goals. Destiny Ajaye is the angrier Bree Newsome turned up to 11.
As I said up top, the only real failing of this story is that it is way, WAY too short. This needs to be an epic-length novel or a TV series like The Wire.
This is really good. Nearly as good as [b:100 Bullets|11117109|100 Bullets The Deluxe Edition Book I|Brian Azzarello|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388213748s/11117109.jpg|16039695]. The art is likewise terrific, although I did want it to sometimes be a tad less stylized. That's such a minor point, though, it's hardly worth mentioning.