The Ingenious and The Color of Life by J.Y. Sam; Intelligent and Character Driven Science Fiction About Genetically Engineered Genius Children

 The Ingenious and The Color of Life by J.Y. Sam; Intelligent and Character Driven Science Fiction About Genetically Engineered Genius Children 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: I can never truly say that I am tired of a genre when there are books out there that are set to prove me wrong. Just as Darren Frey’s Psychonautic, Blythe Gryphon’s The Genius of Our Wiles, Ian Conner’s Cardinals, and Stacy Keenan’s Love is Eternal did with Vampire Romances so J.Y. Sam’s The Ingenious and The Color of Life does with books about Superheroes and Children With Magical/Psychic Abilities. It shows that there is still enough life left in that genre to impress even the most bored reviewer. In fact, it is a top contender already for one of the Best Books of 2024.

Years ago, a secret project was created called Project Ingenious to create genius children through genetic engineering. Things went awry, the project ended, and the children were separated. Years later, someone is hunting down these kids. The doors of the project are forced to be reopened as three of the kids are located. They are Milicent Bythaway, a genius with a photographic and eidetic memory, Calista Matheson, a beautiful tech expert, and Tai Jones, an empath who can see auras. They are led by Professor Harald Wolff who wants them to hone their gifts, find the other missing kids, and keep safe from whoever wants to kill them.

Sam develops the protagonists through their abilities and personalities. Their origins and previous experiences are diverse and play into who they are as individuals. Milicent was raised by one of the former scientists who conditioned her to avoid using her gifts in school to avoid detection. She knows that she has these powers but mostly keeps them to herself. However, they manifest in different ways such as suddenly learning new languages just by reading them in phrase books or feeling her late mother’s spirit literally communicating with her. This remains mostly within herself until she accidentally rescues a young boy at her workplace. Since Milicent’s abilities allow her to absorb knowledge and information, she is the most intelligent of the trio and is usually the first to provide information and make strategic plans. 

Tai also has an interesting backstory. While Milicent is ordered to hide her abilities, Tai does not have that option. His second sight appears whether he wants it to or not and it ends up helping to save his life when he has to face homelessness. Unlike Milicent who was protected by loving but overprotective parents, Tai was abandoned by his mother and left to face a harsh impoverished world alone. Despite his difficult upbringing, he is the kindest character of the trio, even in the whole book. His empathic abilities are exacerbated by his kind nature, one that is displayed when he cares for a family of cats like they were his own children. He is able to feel the cats’ pain and see the colors reflecting their moods as he helps them.  

Calista is a much more extroverted character than her colleagues and her background builds on that. She hid her abilities in ignorance. Unlike Milicent who had to hide her intelligence and talents behind an average facade, Calista cultivated a beautiful public image and downplayed her intelligence almost too successfully. There is some implication that the “dumb beauty” role was foisted upon her by parents who wanted her to stay hidden and she fell into it so well that she became that role. Some of her early dimness is held up as comic relief, but the implications make it a dark comedy as she is unable to be who she really could be. It is only when she is a teen and meets her boyfriend, Jake, that she is able to free the potential that had been inside. Calista and Jake’s relationship interests her enough to study computers and to absorb the information to the point that within a short time she is able to hack into classified government information after Jake mysteriously disappears.

When Professor Wolff brings them together, one would expect them to become a superhero team, start saving innocent lives, and take on evil forces. Okay, some of that happens but it’s less to do with the characters becoming a force for good than it is about them learning about and expanding on their abilities and above all keeping safe from those who will harm them. It’s less about the greater good than it is about their personal good. They are tutored and trained by colleagues in various advanced academic subjects, self defense, and techniques to hone their powers. They are also kept isolated in Wolff’s compound and being teenagers, they get cabin fever and are ready to defy orders. These acts of defiance end up challenging and enabling them to work together as a team. Ironically, even though they weren’t intended to be a team of superheroes, that is exactly what they become especially after they locate others with special abilities and recruit them to join their team. 

The darkest part of the book is an extended flashback which fills in the blanks about Project Ingenious and what it did. Milicent, Tai, and Calista have to see through the memories of another character, one who was driven insane by the experiment and the abuse and mistreatment that they endured. There are many disturbing things revealed in this flashback notably that it begins inside the womb through the character’s mind and includes the scientists’ discussions and thought processes outside. This reveals that these characters were meant to become geniuses even as fetuses. Imagine having full awareness of your surroundings even before you are born, being able to think, plan, and reason before you understand basic concepts like love, warmth, home, and family. It would be enough to drive a person insane and that is what happens here. 

Because of what we learn in the flashback, it’s hard to see the characters in simple black and white, good and evil terms. Wolff’s true motives are highly suspect. He appears to genuinely care about the geniuses beyond being experiments but many of his goals and motives are questionable. Is he a scientist who realized that his original project was wrong and is trying to redeem himself? Is he a potential megalomaniac who has his own ambitions for what he wants to do with the young people? It’s hard to tell and this book can go either way.

The shades of gray in which the characters inhabit are particularly unveiled in one of the most puzzling chapters. Milicent, Calista, Tai and their other new friends do something questionable to counter an enemy. For spoiler’s sake, it won’t be revealed but it raises a lot of ethical concerns in whether the characters overstep their boundaries in committing this action. To be fair, they are called out on it and there are some hints that they opened up a huge problem for themselves that wouldn’t have been there if they hadn’t acted. It’s a definite open ended decision that will potentially take the next book to reveal the consequences.

With interesting characters, unique abilities, and shades of gray, Ingenious and the Color of Life proves itself to be a cut above most in the superhero subgenre.