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Title: Major disappointment
Review: As many other reviewers here have noted, the idea is fascinating, but it proves too much for the author to handle. The impact of all the various splinter groups is so vague and confused that it's hard to see how any of them actually affected history, and in fact most seem more interested in increasing their investment portfolios. And if this 'science' was originally developed independently by at least three groups in the 19th century, all of whom managed to build Babbage Difference Engines secretly, then why hasn't a modern group, using modern computers, likewise developed it? The 'secret' of the society is pretty easily cracked by the lead character, who lacks only a cape and a mask to qualify as a super-heroine. Most of the rest of the large cast are pretty much names without faces. And finally, though the book ends, the resolution is vague and unsatisfying.
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