Agatha H. and the Siege of Mechanicsburg: Girl Genius, Book Four

The pacing is a little too breakneck and the story is rarely allowed to slow down and breathe, but overall it's still very good. Having read both the novels and the comics I actually prefer the novels.

Finely after years of wating we get the conclution to the siege of Mechanicsburg. Ofcorse those who read the online comic now what is about go down but like the 3 novels before it this one ad more detal. Both throu the discriptions of emtion hard to convay i pictures and the once again hilarius foot motes that sould defetly not be overlooked. Ontop of all this the novel once again taked the opetunety to fill in seces betwen the frames giving awseres and deapth not found in the comics. If you like the comick or the previus novels you are gona love this one too. It is the continuation of all the hummer and drama that the foligos are so good ad. So by this book and once more join Agatha Heterodyne on a thrilling ride in the world of gears, mosters, lighting and the best(jet somhove also underplayd) love triangel I have ever read about. LONGE LIVE THE MISTRES OF MECHANICSBURG. ALL HAILE THE LADY HETERODYNE AND TREMBEL BEFORE HER!!

I have been a longtime fan of the Girl Genius webcomic and finally decided this summer to try out the books. It was an experience. The below review applies to all four books: Agatha H. and the Airship City, Agatha H. and the Clockwork Princess, Agatha H and the Voice of the Castle, and this book, Agatha H. and the Siege of Mechanicsburg. The pros: The Foglios are very good at world building. The world they have created is rich in details, fantastic without being so unbelievable as to cause laughter — though there will be a fair amount of laughter at the comedic moments in the story! The novels are a faithful retelling of the events in the comic, with the addition of a deeper dive into characters' thoughts and motivations that do not always come across on the comic pages. Additionally, the authors have added quite a bit in history and culture for their world, crafting a richly creative experience. The cons: The authors desperately need a good proofreader. The text is rife with spelling errors and inconsistencies (even of names and places they created!). The verb tense shifts from paragraph to paragraph, at multiple points in the text. Because the text follows the comic, and the comic will often shift scenes from page to page with little-to-no transition, the text will do the same. There are no line breaks to indicate the shifting scenes, which does at times cause confusion as there is no visual cue that viewpoint is shifting from two characters in one location to five characters in another. Overall this makes for a very hard read; the errors and inconsistencies cause the text to be jerky and disjointed, instead of flowing smoothly. While this works for the visual medium that is the comic, in text format it becomes more of a chore to deal with rather than a story to enjoy. I had hoped that, progressing through to the later books, the errors would become less but sadly, they are just as prevalent in book 4 as they are in book 1. Overall I enjoyed the books from the point of view of adding to the visual medium presented by the comic's storytelling, but found them a tedious read. Coming from such talented world builders and storytellers, this was a disappointment.

Even if you read Phil and Kaja Foglio's Girl Genius on-line web-comic, even if you've collected the hard-copy graphic novels, you still don't know the whole story! That's right, the Professors Foglio add even more new content in their prose novels, try them for the Mad Science, stay for the chocolate-covered Mimmiths!

The Foglios have been cranking out the Girl Genius comics for around fifteen years. But these novelizations are more - they clarify the plot, provide a LOT of background information, and insert some jokes that just can't make it into a comic. If you're new, start with the first book. You'll need the setup. But buy all four...these things are like chocolate mimmoths. You can't stop with just one.

So this book is based on the Girl Genius webcomic, and I love it just as much now as I did when I first discovered the series was back when the plan Jagers had a deep conversation the how a plan where you lose your hat is a bad plan.

As always a wonderful read on the continuing adventures of Agatha Heterodyne and her friends! Even if you’ve read the graphic novels or follow online, you need to get the written novel to help fill in the gaps and provide some more complete explanation of the story. Plus, the footnotes ALONE are worth buying this book! Already looking forward to the next one.

When I was reading this, I was dreading the finishing of the book. I remember once going to Comic-Con and meeting them and asking them when this book would come out. If you also had to wait, you will not be disappointed!

The prose series follows the same story line as the Girl Genius graphic novels. Somehow it still manages to produce page turners. And there are always elements of the plot and back story that get filled in. Highly recommended as are the graphic novels.

I've been a fan of Girl Genius comic since the beginning of the series. This book is the latest in the series, bringing more background and depth to the comics. Can't wait for the next one!

The pacing is a little too breakneck and the story is rarely allowed to slow down and breathe, but overall it's still very good. Having read both the novels and the comics I actually prefer the novels.

Finely after years of wating we get the conclution to the siege of Mechanicsburg. Ofcorse those who read the online comic now what is about go down but like the 3 novels before it this one ad more detal. Both throu the discriptions of emtion hard to convay i pictures and the once again hilarius foot motes that sould defetly not be overlooked. Ontop of all this the novel once again taked the opetunety to fill in seces betwen the frames giving awseres and deapth not found in the comics. If you like the comick or the previus novels you are gona love this one too. It is the continuation of all the hummer and drama that the foligos are so good ad. So by this book and once more join Agatha Heterodyne on a thrilling ride in the world of gears, mosters, lighting and the best(jet somhove also underplayd) love triangel I have ever read about. LONGE LIVE THE MISTRES OF MECHANICSBURG. ALL HAILE THE LADY HETERODYNE AND TREMBEL BEFORE HER!!

I have been a longtime fan of the Girl Genius webcomic and finally decided this summer to try out the books. It was an experience. The below review applies to all four books: Agatha H. and the Airship City, Agatha H. and the Clockwork Princess, Agatha H and the Voice of the Castle, and this book, Agatha H. and the Siege of Mechanicsburg. The pros: The Foglios are very good at world building. The world they have created is rich in details, fantastic without being so unbelievable as to cause laughter — though there will be a fair amount of laughter at the comedic moments in the story! The novels are a faithful retelling of the events in the comic, with the addition of a deeper dive into characters' thoughts and motivations that do not always come across on the comic pages. Additionally, the authors have added quite a bit in history and culture for their world, crafting a richly creative experience. The cons: The authors desperately need a good proofreader. The text is rife with spelling errors and inconsistencies (even of names and places they created!). The verb tense shifts from paragraph to paragraph, at multiple points in the text. Because the text follows the comic, and the comic will often shift scenes from page to page with little-to-no transition, the text will do the same. There are no line breaks to indicate the shifting scenes, which does at times cause confusion as there is no visual cue that viewpoint is shifting from two characters in one location to five characters in another. Overall this makes for a very hard read; the errors and inconsistencies cause the text to be jerky and disjointed, instead of flowing smoothly. While this works for the visual medium that is the comic, in text format it becomes more of a chore to deal with rather than a story to enjoy. I had hoped that, progressing through to the later books, the errors would become less but sadly, they are just as prevalent in book 4 as they are in book 1. Overall I enjoyed the books from the point of view of adding to the visual medium presented by the comic's storytelling, but found them a tedious read. Coming from such talented world builders and storytellers, this was a disappointment.

Even if you read Phil and Kaja Foglio's Girl Genius on-line web-comic, even if you've collected the hard-copy graphic novels, you still don't know the whole story! That's right, the Professors Foglio add even more new content in their prose novels, try them for the Mad Science, stay for the chocolate-covered Mimmiths!

The Foglios have been cranking out the Girl Genius comics for around fifteen years. But these novelizations are more - they clarify the plot, provide a LOT of background information, and insert some jokes that just can't make it into a comic. If you're new, start with the first book. You'll need the setup. But buy all four...these things are like chocolate mimmoths. You can't stop with just one.

So this book is based on the Girl Genius webcomic, and I love it just as much now as I did when I first discovered the series was back when the plan Jagers had a deep conversation the how a plan where you lose your hat is a bad plan.

As always a wonderful read on the continuing adventures of Agatha Heterodyne and her friends! Even if you’ve read the graphic novels or follow online, you need to get the written novel to help fill in the gaps and provide some more complete explanation of the story. Plus, the footnotes ALONE are worth buying this book! Already looking forward to the next one.

When I was reading this, I was dreading the finishing of the book. I remember once going to Comic-Con and meeting them and asking them when this book would come out. If you also had to wait, you will not be disappointed!

The prose series follows the same story line as the Girl Genius graphic novels. Somehow it still manages to produce page turners. And there are always elements of the plot and back story that get filled in. Highly recommended as are the graphic novels.

I've been a fan of Girl Genius comic since the beginning of the series. This book is the latest in the series, bringing more background and depth to the comics. Can't wait for the next one!

OK, I am going to squee like a fanboy. The novels add great depth and detail to the webcomic, and add High Humor to Dark Times. Want details? Read it yourself... dollink.

don't take 5 more years for the next book! The books helps to better clarify things that are not clear in the comic,

Another chapter is the exciting adventures of Agatha Heterodyne and her world of “Mad Science!” Epic and enjoyable as always.

Adventure, drama, romance, footnotes, deathrays, unnatural horrors. It has it all.

We love this series- can’t wait for book 5!

Originally published at Fantasy Literature. (Copied and pasted, so links won't work and there may be some alt tags in this review.) The GIRL GENIUS novels are so much fun! When I picked up the first of these (Agatha H. and the Airship City), I assumed that a novelization of a web comic wouldn’t work very well. Boy, was I wrong! Though the Foglios’ artwork is fabulous, and I urge you with all the force of my will to take a look at it online, I find that I enjoy the story just as much with the novels. The Foglios have a wonderful sense of humor that really comes out in this expanded format, especially with the funny footnotes that allow them to fill in details, remind us of events that happened previously, and provide little jokes just to make us laugh. Agatha H. and the Siege of Mechanicsburg (2020) is the fourth novel and it makes no sense to start here. You really need to read the previous three novels, or be up-to-date on the web comic through June 25, 2010. At this point in the story, Agatha is in Castle Heterodyne, attempting to claim her inheritance. However, the castle has a lot of structural problems, making it unstable and dangerous and, to add to the troubles, Agatha has enemies both inside and outside the building. In fact, she even has an enemy inside her own head! Nobody in the castle, or even in the city of Mechanicsburg, is safe in this precarious situation and Agatha must set things right. Fortunately, as usual, she has the help of some delightful (and sometimes crazy) friends, old and new. All of the characters are over-the-top, but that’s part of the charm of this gleefully wacky story. In addition to the regular cast members, we’ll meet some new characters such as giant subterranean mecha-narwhals and a dragon named Franz. In this installment, we get some additional information about Agatha’s world. For example, we learn more about the castle, about Agatha’s parents, why the Baron hates Agatha, and why there are so few female sparks. Some new questions come up, too. For example, who is Gil’s mother? And, there’s also more romance, including a love triangle that will not be resolved in this book. Some of the plot of Agatha H. and the Siege of Mechanicsburg feels a little repetitive, like an extension of the previous book (Agatha H. and the Voice of the Castle), and it seems like way too much happens in way too short a time. But overall, Agatha H. and the Siege of Mechanicsburg provides many hours of madcap entertainment and I loved it, though I’m really looking forward to getting out of the castle in the next installment. Agatha H. and the Siege of Mechanicsburg ends with this scene from April 10, 2013. The audiobook editions are now being published by Tantor Audio (previous editions were published by Brilliance Audio). Fortunately, they’ve been able to keep the narrator, Angela Dawe, who does a marvelous job with these stories. I just wish they’d come out a little quicker. It’s been six years since the previous audiobook release!