Change the World

    Genius: The Revolution by Leopoldo Gout

Publication date: August 7, 2018

Summary from Goodreads:

Three teen geniuses from diverse backgrounds must take down an online terrorist ring, rescue an imprisoned father, and prepare for their final showdown with a misguided mastermind in this third and final book in the Genius YA trilogy by Leopoldo Gout.

How do we stop him? We beat him at his own game. 

Painted Wolf: Mysterious activist blogger and strategist from China. Faces off against dangerous online terrorists in an attempt to free her father from prison.

Tunde: Fourteen-year-old engineering genius. Liberated his Nigerian village from a vicious warlord only to discover a much more dangerous threat.

Rex: Sixteen-year-old Mexican-American programmer and hacker. Bands together with his friends and long lost brother to stop a mastermind from destroying the internet.

The Revolution: Outwit evil organizations. Expose the truth. Rescue their families. Save the world. 
If we work together, we can change the world.

You can read my reviews of book one Genius: The Game and book two Genius: The Con by clicking on the titles. 

I really wished that I had the time to reread the first two books before this one.  Especially because this one started right where the last one left off and there really wasn’t much of a recap, of the first two books.  But I found that it was easy to get right back into the characters and what was going on. 

This was another action packed book with the three main characters trotting across the globe from Beijing to Mexico City to Arizona and then finally to Patagonia.  It is amazing to me when I think back over the other two books that the whole plot takes place over a very short time period.  I also found myself having to remember that these were pretty young kids.  Rex and Cai are 16 and Tunde is only 14, but they are geniuses and so present as older.  Their voices are pretty authentic I think though. 

I continued to really like our intrepid trio.  Rex and Cai continue to find a little bit of romantic time together, but nothing overwhelming, they are saving the world after all.  Tunde is always the optimist and often brought a bit of levity to some tense situations.  He comes up with some pretty ingenious inventions as well like this smart balloon that when used with about 400 more enveloped a building in it’s own wireless network that they could control.  Through out the whole series these three friends stand stronger together and their morals and ethics never waver, even when they are faced with impossible situations and tasks. 

I also really enjoyed the pictures and doodles in the margins of the book.  These two were my favorite though.  Tunde was the more creative of the trio and always had the best doodles. 

 

There are some new characters introduced in this book that I am hoping might lead to an offshoot series.  The ULTRA group was another trio of young kids who helped out the LODGE take down Kiran and his plot to destroy the internet.  

A really good exciting ending to a really fabulous trilogy.  This one did have a bit of a message to all kids that even if you are not a genius, if you have the courage and the patience, even you can change the world.

” The one thing that really separates prodigies from the rest of the world is time.  Some of us, like myself and my LODGE companions Painted Wolf  and Tunde Oni, start early.  They label us geniuses because we can do impressive things at a young age, but that doesn’t mean you can’t as well.”