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A review by toggle_fow
The Scorpion Rules by Erin Bow
5.0
GOOD NIGHT.
This was completely unexpected and really, REALLY good. I meant to just start it, get far enough in that I'd be motivated to finish it tomorrow, but then I just kept going. And going. And now I've spent the whole evening reading this, instead of what I had actually planned to do. This story might not necessarily be on par with every other five-star book in my list, but my rating is a reflection of the fact that somehow this book was powerful enough to hoodwink and shanghai me against my will.
First of all, the worldbuilding? So unique. Horses and rocketships and hereditary monarchies and AIs? It's a mix that surprisingly makes a ton of sense, and that I have not seen before.
The relationships? They vibed. There was more romance than I really wanted, but it was fine when weighed up against everything else. And outside of the romance, the relationships between Greta's cohort felt important and weighty -- even the ones that didn't have a lot of narrative "work" put into them.
The plot? When Elian shows up, you think he's going to end up being the star of the show. Girl meets boy, boy changes girl's entire outlook on life, girl and boy bring down the system together. Who among us hasn't read this before? Only, that's not what happens. He does end up being the catalyst for change, but not at all in the way I expected.
The Orwellian "peace" of the monastery starts off a little slow, but then halfway through the book everything is turned upside-down. The action never lets up, and I turned every single page with the tense need to know what happened on the next one as fast as possible. It's brutal, and stressful, and exciting. The politics. The maneuvering. The self-sacrifice, and duty. So good. I find myself now in urgent need of the sequel.
Now, for the most important piece of what makes this book work: TALIS.
I have to say... I literally love him. Without Talis, this entire story doesn't play. Even in the beginning, the quotes peppered solemnly in from the Utterances add a jarring note of hilarity. They're disorienting, letting you know up front that this book probably won't be exactly what you expect. Once he SHOWS UP, though, things really start popping.
The combination of being genuinely very funny and also a merciless, amoral megalomaniac cannot be underestimated. It's priceless. He's definitely a monster, but there's enough of him there that you want to know why, and whether there could be something better. All powerful? Lonely? Murderous? Inhuman? It's exactly the kind of character I am most compelled by. I was obsessed from like the second Utterances quote.
This was completely unexpected and really, REALLY good. I meant to just start it, get far enough in that I'd be motivated to finish it tomorrow, but then I just kept going. And going. And now I've spent the whole evening reading this, instead of what I had actually planned to do. This story might not necessarily be on par with every other five-star book in my list, but my rating is a reflection of the fact that somehow this book was powerful enough to hoodwink and shanghai me against my will.
First of all, the worldbuilding? So unique. Horses and rocketships and hereditary monarchies and AIs? It's a mix that surprisingly makes a ton of sense, and that I have not seen before.
The relationships? They vibed. There was more romance than I really wanted, but it was fine when weighed up against everything else. And outside of the romance, the relationships between Greta's cohort felt important and weighty -- even the ones that didn't have a lot of narrative "work" put into them.
The plot? When Elian shows up, you think he's going to end up being the star of the show. Girl meets boy, boy changes girl's entire outlook on life, girl and boy bring down the system together. Who among us hasn't read this before? Only, that's not what happens. He does end up being the catalyst for change, but not at all in the way I expected.
The Orwellian "peace" of the monastery starts off a little slow, but then halfway through the book everything is turned upside-down. The action never lets up, and I turned every single page with the tense need to know what happened on the next one as fast as possible. It's brutal, and stressful, and exciting. The politics. The maneuvering. The self-sacrifice, and duty. So good. I find myself now in urgent need of the sequel.
Now, for the most important piece of what makes this book work: TALIS.
I have to say... I literally love him. Without Talis, this entire story doesn't play. Even in the beginning, the quotes peppered solemnly in from the Utterances add a jarring note of hilarity. They're disorienting, letting you know up front that this book probably won't be exactly what you expect. Once he SHOWS UP, though, things really start popping.
The combination of being genuinely very funny and also a merciless, amoral megalomaniac cannot be underestimated. It's priceless. He's definitely a monster, but there's enough of him there that you want to know why, and whether there could be something better. All powerful? Lonely? Murderous? Inhuman? It's exactly the kind of character I am most compelled by. I was obsessed from like the second Utterances quote.