This third volume of the novelization of the Girl Genius comic continues to be an entertaining addition to the canon. That said, like the comic its self, this third novel started to slow down. The full thing covered a period of less than 24 hours.

While I do enjoy the additional insights into the characters thoughts that the novelization provides, I do sometimes wish that the authors strayed slightly more from the comic itself. In particular, the comic makes great use of visual cues to convey information and mood. Instead of using methods more appropriate to a novel to achieve that, many scenes throughout this book just transcribe the visual cues used in the comic. It's not bad, but it certainly weakens the narrative. ( )

The webcomic in book form. Fun reading. ( )

This is an excellent book, and the reader is fantastic. However, the audiobook omits the "To be Continued in Agatha H. and the Siege of Mechanicsburg" chunk that comes after the cliffhanger, which is rather frustrating.

Also, this book ends on a cliffhanger, and Agatha H and the Siege of Mechanicsburg isn't out yet, so keep that under consideration - though considering that arc of the comics also ends on a cliffhanger, you may even want to wait until the 5th novel, and then binge on the three of them. That way you're on a good stopping place while you wait for "Agatha H. and the Master of Paris." or whatever book 6 will be titled. ( )

Agatha returns to Mechanicsburg to take up her role as heir to the Heterodyne castle. The Castle is an AI, though currently badly damaged that protects the city of Mechanicsburg and is fiercely protective of its domain. Those who want to rule the castle must first survive entering the castle and must convince the castle that they are the rightful master.

After many adventures, Agatha has returned to the stronghold of her ancestors, Mechanicsburg, where generations of Heterodynes terrorised the continent. For many long years the people of Mechanicsburg have waited for a Heterodyne heir to return – a town full of minions just waiting for the Master to lead them again

But first she must prove herself in the Castle. Sentiment, terrifying and immensely powerful structure, terribly damaged for years – few people survive who step within.

To complicate matters there’s a second claimant to her title – and it doesn’t help that Klaus, the Empreror, is convinced she is the Other, a terrible force that could tear his empire apart.

When reviewing books it is always important to remember that there are a lot of different tastes out there. I will look at goodreads and see people who loved books I loathes or hated books I adored, been a little bemused but then shrugged because taste is a weird and wonderful varied thing. I remember this because I try to be mature and sensible

Well, I’m throwing that out the window. If you do not love this book clearly there is something terribly wrong with you, I suspect you may not have a soul. Yes I call soullessness!

It is impossible for me to read more than a chapter of this book without a great big silly grin on my face. I think my face may actually be stuck like that. It’s the same grin from reading the previous two books – this series is just so much immense fun!

I love the sparks. I love these glorious evil geniuses with their brilliant mad science and whacky and terrifying creations! I love how zany and weird and wonderful it is. I love how much it made me laugh out loud over and over again as they do so many things, FOR SCIENCE! Including making exploding coffee THAT WAS PERFECT!

I love how so many of the characters are gloriously evil, and it just works in the most amazing way

I love the Jaegers, they’re immense fun, they’re evil and they’re hilarious and I want one. My only sadness is they don’t appear nearly enough in this book

I love the Castle, the product of generations of devilishly evil Heterodyne Spark masterminds who have designed it and increased it over the centuries to be a font of gleeful evil. I love how Agatha with her morality (occasionally overcome by her SCIENCE) tries to work surrounded by people and minions who are the very height of evil.

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