Dark Genius

Volume 1

By: H. Peter Alesso

Narrated by: Jennifer Groberg

Breaking the glass ceiling in science wasn't going to be easy for Emma, even with Lawrence's help.

After his troubled past, Lawrence hoped for a fresh start at MIT when he met Emma. But before they could begin, their world turned into a lie.

Everything was torn away from them and they were embroiled in computer hacking and murder. Dodging the FBI while hiding from cyber-terrorists, they were forced into the underworld of the dark web, anonymous encryption, and AI finance.

While trying to throw off the ghosts of his haunted past, Lawrence had to run faster and faster to evade the shadowy forces that were after him and Emma.

©2017 Harry Peter Alesso (P)2018 Harry Peter Alesso

A Fast, Exciting Read!

A terrific beginning to what I hope is a new series? Two young scientists get caught up into a frightening race to find a hacker. The cyber terrorist seems to have pointed guilt toward Andrew Lawrence. Back at MIT to prove himself, he is determined to find the who and the why, both to clear his name and to stop a fraudulent use of the quantum computer being hacked.

Fast paced, intriguing science, and an entertaining mystery. It's a quick read/listen you will enjoy. The narrator is a good one! Enjoyed her voice, pacing and variations.

You can read my full review at Mystery Suspense Reviews. This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.

Enjoyed the Narration

I enjoyed this book based on the main character Andrew Lawrence. Lawrence is an individual from MIT trying to 'fit in' however, the professor Prost makes this very challenging. When there is a cyber attack, Lawrence and his counter part, Emma are looked at as suspects.

Jennifer Groberg, did a wonderful job narrating this book and gave it the little extra something, to make it even better.


This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review courtesy of AudiobookBoom

Entertaining and action packed!

This was my first H. Peter Alesso's book and this won't be the last! Wow! This technothriller was really entertaining, fast-paced and action packed and I loved it! The ending was also great! This was my first listen to Jennifer Groberg's voice. She has the perfect voice for this story and I really love her voice. I really enjoyed my listening and I totally recommend this audiobook. I'm looking forward for more books written by this author and narrated by this narrator. I received this free review copy audiobook at my request and I have voluntarily left this review. P.S.: If you haven't read the Author's resume on his Audible Page, you should. It's pretty impressive!

A wonderful Narrator makes this a good read

The key to a successful Audio Book is the Narrator and that of course is true here.

The Book is so much better because of the wonderful performance the story comes alive because the Narrator has great skills.



This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.

Computer hackers at a new level!

I am a sucker for books in the techno-thriller genre because this is my area of expertise. This is the main reason I picked up and listened too “Dark Genius” written by H. Peter Alesso. This book is the author’s second book series released and be aware, this is the first released book in the series and the only one currently available in audiobook format; at the time of this review. The audiobook edition was well narrated by Jennifer Groberg, who has quite a few books under her belt on Audible. Although the book has a decent story and plot, I found there were too many holes in the author’s research and implementation of technology making it less realistic than I would have preferred. For those who are less technical and like an exciting action-filled tale, I recommend you give the book a listen. If you are a fan of conspiracies, clandestine hackers, and advanced quantum computing with a distinctive AI (artificial intelligence), you may find the book enjoyable. For me, it is was good, but I was hoping it would have been great. A few changes, edits and some more research into the many technologies used might have done the trick elevating this book above many others in a crowded genre.

The book opened with a good prologue and ramped up the action rather quickly. I also enjoyed that the book took place in the Boston area, which I’m quite familiar with, and that it was often between classmates from both Harvard and MIT. There was quite a bit of the well-known banter between the students of both campuses as each of them feel they are better than others. The story at times felt predictable and the conversations seemed forced. There was a lot of action, but little depth and substance when I step back and think about the story. The sentence structure and dialogues had a feeling of being a younger adult (YA) and at times even childish. This for me felt out of character for these geniuses as I would have thought their vocabulary would have been more advanced and complex. Even some of the conversations between the professors of the campus and the students felt immature at times.

Any modern-day technology thriller needs to have either a quantum computer or artificial intelligence; or both. This story had both with a good portion of the action and activity occurring around CERN and the two Boston campuses. There are some great discussion and topics involving statistics, probability, and research which one expects from a book in this genre. However, the areas that are more focused on computer attackers and their activity felt weak and less realistic. I do not expect one-hundred percent realism in these subject areas, but I would like to have something that feels right and still has a sense of mystery. Something like the TV series Mr. Robot, but this story had too many technological issues for me to fully enjoy it. Systems were to easily compromised and their passwords were stolen with very little effort. As much as this seems the case by reading newspapers or news media, the actual effort is quite tedious and time-consuming. Add to this, one of the most modern and state of the art quantum computers requiring me to suspend belief to accept its use and ability. At times, I felt the author would toss in a few computer terms just to make the book feel more realistic, yet for those in the know, it often had the opposite effect.

I did like the areas where the author has some conversations involving physics, but this may have been my lack of knowledge making it seem realistic. The book felt more like a serious take on the movie comedy “Real Genius” released in 1985. The characters lacked a level of depth I would have expected from those in their field of expertise. There was some light romance which also did not feel as smooth or natural. The movement between the dark web and the campus activity was not as smooth of a transition as I would have expected and the events from the bad people from the dark web were experts in cleaning up their tracks by simply deleting logs. In the real world, things are much more complex than this and even more complicated when speaking of a quantum computer. For me, it came down to how much I could believe and what I knew was fantasy or simply misunderstood technology by the author.

The audiobook’s narration was performed quite well, and I do not recall any issues with the audio or any background artifacts while listening. The narrator’s voice was crisp and clean, and she did a decent job of giving each of the characters unique personalities via their voice. The only thing I would have preferred would have been to have a male voice the main character. I understand this is simply a personal preference and many may enjoy the book as it is currently narrated.

For parents and younger readers, not only does the book contain some light scenes of romance, but it also has a few descriptive sexual scenes that may be inappropriate for younger readers. Even though the writing style is more simplistic which could be comprehended by younger readers, the mature subject matter is something that I would only recommend for mature readers.

In summary, the story was average and overall enjoyable. I did have a few issues, as stated above, around the use of technology and the writing style is more YA, but for those who may not care about these items, the story is not bad. I liked the premise and the direction, but the issues with researching and my knowledge of technology made it difficult for me to truly love it. If this type of book sounds interesting, please give it a try as I know it can take a few books for an author to find his stride.

Audiobook was provided for review by the author/narrator/publisher.
Please find this complete review and many others at my review blog.
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Math is a passion

If you enjoy technical and scientific research, you will enjoy this story.

Jennifer Groberg did a good job narrating.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Hi-tech Fast-paced Thriller

I liked that the book had lots of, let’s call it sciency stuff, quantum computers, highly interactive computer systems, hacking, the dark net, physics theories etc. Andrew, the mc, is a genius having started college at a young age, but we don’t get to see much of his genius because of all the work the “evil professor and his cronies” through at him. That pissed me of a lot at the beginning, treating him like s&#t, but he comes out on top in the end. Sometimes the plot get a little confusing and events just happen out of the blue. The narration was great over the board, really giving the story a greater impact and life to the characters.
I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Cyber-Attack

Andrew Lawrence was a child prodigy and was expelled from MIT as a teenager. He returns to continue his research and immediately butts heads with his old nemesis, Professor Prost, for whom he is working beneath. On his first day on campus he runs literally into Emma Franklin, a talented student working on quantum theories, with whom he becomes involved with both romantically and scientifically. Prost burdens Andrew with tons of work leaving no time for his research, doing all he can to get him fired or get him to leave on his own. Things will become more complicated when Andrew is accused of being involved in a cyber-attack and then murder. I enjoyed the story, loved the characters, however much of the scientific terminology was way above my head.
Most of the characters in this book are male, yet it was narrated by Jennifer Groberg, thus I found it very difficult to distinguish the characters more often than not.
I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

pretty good

I was given this free review copy audio book at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

This was a solid spy thriller mixed with some romance. It is well balanced between the relationship stuff and the actual story line. There is a decent amount of action that kept the story moving. The narration is well done. All in all, a pretty good listening experience.

Dark Genius

What I love about this book is the fact it is not just a romance story but other things happen around them which gives the book suspense and something more.
I absolutely loved it!