about the book
Annabella, a deeply morale Victorian Evangelical Christian, is very concerned that her baby, Ada, has inherited her husband’s wild ways. You see, the baby’s papa is Lord Byron, the famous poet, radical, adventurer, devotee of sexual passions, and writer of romantic love sonnets.
Annabella decides that Ada must never be exposed to poetry, fantasy, or romance. To counteract her father’s tendencies, she will instead be schooled in mathematics. As the years roll by, Ada’s childhood is lonely and her upbringing is very, very strict, almost torturous. By five, she is becoming a human calculator.
In her teens, Ada‘s imagination runs wild, causing her mother’s concern to grow. Looking for someone who will give her even more mathematical guidance, she meets Charles Babbage, a brilliant scholar obsessed with his enormous mechanical calculating machine. He has driven away society and can get no financial backing for his huge project.
At nineteen, Ada is married off to William King, a nobleman, and she becomes the Countess of Lovelace. Three children later, she is ready to resume her mathematical interests. In real life, Ada translates Babbage’s plans for his “Difference Machine,” adding copious footnotes with her own observations which include the first known general computing theory, written a century before the first actual computer is built! Unfortunately, the real Ada dies and her paper is ignored. Charles never builds his mega computer.
In this graphic novel, Lovelace lives and Babbage’s marvelous machine works. In the rollicking alternate reality that follows, the two quirky protagonists use the machine to battle spelling errors, explore the wilder realms of math, build incredible economic models, and fight crime.
Be sure to check out the footnotes on each page which are full of really interesting historical tidbits. The chapter endnotes, appendices, and epilogue contain a description of the actual machine and more facts about Lovelace’s family and Babbage’s funding efforts,
This Victorian steampunk adventure is a wild learning experience as well as a hilarious dance between truth and fiction.
about the author/illustrator
Sydney Padua has a love/hate relationship with computers. Originally a graphic artist who used pencils, brushes and paints, she had to be dragged kicking and screaming toward her first VFX system. If she wanted to keep working in her chosen field as an animator and visual effects artist, she had to make friends with the cranky, pesky machines, which are not known to be user friendly. Now she is winning acclaim as being THE expert on Victorian computers, and specifically on the team of Charles Babbage and the Countess of Lovelace.
Sydney usually makes giant monsters that attack people in movies. Her hand-drawn and computer-designed special effects can be seen in The Iron Giant, Clash of the Titans, John Carter, Marmaduke, Quest for Camelot, and The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. She had never done comics until a friend suggested she do a single comic issue for Ada Lovelace Day, a celebration of women in mathematics, science, engineering, and technology.
Hating that both Babbage and Lovelace died with their life work unfinished, Sydney decided to end her comic with an alternative reality where both succeeded. People loved it and thought she was going to continue on and do a complete series. Sydney decided why not!
So now she is the author of the steampunk webcomic, 2D Goggles and the graphic novel The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage. What started as a simple 22-page comic turned into a huge research project. She has enough humorous historical tidbits to do several more projects. She’s just not sure she has the time or energy to do another 320-page graphic novel, especially while still working at her demanding daytime job!
Sydney Padua is really Melina Sydney Padua. She was born to a Canadian mother and an Argentinean father and grew up in the Canadian prairies and in Mexico City. She now makes her home in London with her husband, far too many books, and an occasional pet mouse.
Sources:
Author/illustrator website
Author/illustrator biography: Bio.
Author/illustrator biography: Wikipedia
Author/illustrator interview: The Mary Sue
Author talks about life and book: YouTube
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