She doesn't seem to learn a thing at Illyria, either-she spends all her days working on her own project, without needing professors' help, and her nights drinking with friends. For someone supposedly obsessed with mechanical devices, Viola certainly thinks about them very little. I want to know exactly what's alternate about it! The steampunk feels pasted on, and it works like magic, not science. All historical details are kept very vague, which is frustrating to someone like me when reading an alternate history. Judging from Ada Lovelace's age, it should be 1882, but it never felt like it, not even close. The world building is odd-I could never tell exactly when it was supposed to take place. It's a bit like Twelfth Night mixed up in a blender with the Importance of Being Ernest, except without the transversive sexual tension of the first or the humor of either. Meanwhile, one of Viola's fellow students plans to take over the world! While she and the Duke battle their attraction for each other (he assuming she's a boy, she wanting to focus on her inventions), the Duke's ward Cecily falls in love with Viola. While there, she runs into wacky professors, sinister clockwork automatons, and the far-too-sexy-for-her-good Duke. Illyria only accepts male students, so of course she masquerades as a boy to attend. Viola Adams has a gift for invention, and the best way to hone her skills is by attending the prestigious Illyria College. She soon realizes that it's not just keeping her secret until the end of the year faire she has to worry about: it's surviving that long.Īt the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied. She disguises herself as her twin brother, Ashton, and gains entry.īut keeping the secret of her sex won't be easy, not with her friend Jack's constant habit of pulling pranks, and especially not when the duke's young ward, Cecily, starts to develop feelings for Violet's alter ego, 'Ashton.' Not to mention blackmail, mysterious killer automata, and the way Violet's pulse quickens whenever the young duke, Ernest (who has a secret past of his own), speaks to her. Violet sees her opportunity when her father departs for America. The school is run by his son, Ernest, who has held to his father's policy that the small, exclusive college remain male-only. Violet Adams wants to attend Illyria College, a widely renowned school for the most brilliant up-and-coming scientific minds, founded by the late Duke Illyria, the greatest scientist of the Victorian Age. A comedic Steampunk sensation inspired by both Shakespeare's Twelfth Night and Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, All Men of Genius follows Violet Adams as she disguises herself as her twin brother to gain entry to Victorian London's most prestigious scientific academy, and once there, encounters blackmail, mystery, and love.

Graphic novel the best we could do