Immensely delightful and illuminating... Padua delivers a thoroughly unsynthesizable range of enchantment and elucidation
Maria Popova
Brain Pickings
Sydney Padua's smart and sassy steampunk science graphic novel is a delightful mixture of research and invention, dressed up in Padua's bouncy cartooning. If nothing else, it is one of the best introductions to its real-life heroine, proto-computer programmer ... Read moreAda Lovelace, you could wish for. If only all science lessons could be this much fun
Herald Scotland
Wonderful and genuinely informative... Padua's gorgeous art and very funny text are combined with factual footnotes to create an utterly unique and enormously enjoyable book -
Anna Carey
Irish Times
I love it... everyone is getting a copy
Martha Lane-Fox There is no way around this, Sydney Padua's Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage is bloody brilliant... and educational too
Robin Ince A stylish, funny graphic novel featuring Ada Lovelace, estranged daughter of Lord Byron, and co-programmer, had it ever been built, of the mathematical engine . Playful, earnest, and beautifully drawn, the book cuts a swathe through early computing theory, explores Ada's relationship with Charles Babbage, and brings to the fore one of the unsung heroines of science
Sarah Hall
Independent
Rich with in-jokes, warmth and charm... It's difficult not to be ignited by Sydney Padua's enthusiasm. There is so much to discover that I'll treasure my copy for years to come
Hannah Fry
BBC Focus
The wittiest, best-researched and most original tribute yet paid to the achievements of Ada Lovelace... An astonishing debut... a book that ought to be ordered in triplicate by every school in the land... Ingenious as a textbook, marvellous fun as inventive biography
Miranda Seymour
Literary Review
The book does more than simply celebrate the genius of the first computer programmer, it encourages us to turn our imagination to technology - just as Lovelace did. And that's an inspiration to us all
Nicola Davis
Observer Tech Monthly
My new favourite book. It has everything. Byron, maths, imaginary computers, emotion
Matt Haig, author of Reasons to Stay Alive An utter joy... Padua has done her research: she has teased out the connections between Babbage, Lovelace and what would seem to be the whole of Victorian culture and society - and done so in a way that appears almost effortless on the page, her light, easy graphic style an excellent vehicle not only for deep and complex thought, but for excellent, and sometimes excellently corny, jokes. This is a book to reread, not just read
Nicholas Lezard
Guardian
So impossibly funny, clever, demented, charming and altogether wonderful that I was a convert within three pages. Buy it for everyone you know, regardless of what you think they like. Brilliant stuff
Lucy Mangan, Book of the Year
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