The Scorpion Rules lacks the action from either of those two stories, relying more instead on strategy and political maneuvering (as teenagers would do, mind you). These days, you definitely can’t think of children being taken to guarantee the good behavior of adults without being reminded of The Hunger Games. It’s hard to read the story of a sentient artificial intelligence system killing and ruling over humans to protect the earth without thinking of the Terminator movies. While I thought The Scorpion Rules had an interesting idea, I kept getting distracted by how similar it was to other post-apocalyptic novels and movies. Unfortunately, things come to a head when Greta and the new addition’s home territories begin to fight over water access.

Sure, you can act out but if everyone else is going to be punished too, chances are they’re going to make sure you don’t act out again. For just as the hostages are meant to guarantee the good behavior of their home territories, collective punishment and peer pressure are meant to guarantee the good behavior of the hostages. He doesn’t understand the unspoken rules. The new addition sends their group into flux and uncertainty. That changes when a new hostage from what is essentially the United States arrives. Hostages have come and gone, but the order of things has never been truly disrupted. Their group has enjoyed relative peace and stability.

She is the princess of what is essentially Canada. Greta is the de facto leader of her group of child hostages. If a country wages war on another country, the children of the involved territories are executed. After all, a hostage is only as effective as their importance. And not just any child either, but generally a child of the country’s ruling monarchy. To maintain peace, every nation must turn over a child to the ruling AI. In The Scorpion Rules, artificial intelligence has gone sentient and taken control of the world in the future. That’s the power of writing a memorable book in Sorrow’s Knot. I still haven’t managed to pick up your other novel, Plain Kate, but when I saw that you had a new book coming out, I immediately decided to give it a try. My first introduction to your work was Sorrow’s Knot, which I enjoyed. Jia C Reviews dystopian / f/f romance / Science Fiction / Simon & Schuster / Young-Adult Comments Off on REVIEW: The Scorpion Rules by Erin Bow OctoREVIEW: The Scorpion Rules by Erin Bow