The Scorpion Rules by Erin Bow

Hundreds of years in the future, Earth is run by an artificial intelligence. Originally human, turned into an AI in a quest for immortality, Talis took advantage of access given to him by people at the UN and forced the people of Earth to stop fighting wars. First, he blew up cities to get their attention. Then he took the children of all the leaders – the Children of Peace – to hold hostage against their good behavior. If there is war, the children of the leaders die.

Greta, the narrator of Erin Bow’s book The Scorpion Rules, is one of those children. Canada is now the Pan Polar Confederacy, and she is the daughter of their Queen. If the Children make it to the age of 18, they are sent home and new hostages are taken. If their countries go to war, the Children disappear to some unspeakable end.

We see Greta and the other Children her age studying in their classroom and doing chores on the farm. The characters are not particularly well drawn or memorable. Greta takes great pride in maintaining calm and control. The new boy, Elian, does not. He takes pride in defiance and anger, no matter how he is punished. There is much punishment in this book, and torture. The torture is not graphic but it is extremely evocative, and I found it hard to read.

For the most part, the narrative engaged me. Despite my intense dislike of torture scenes, I did feel compelled to keep reading. I often enjoyed the author’s way with words, like in this passage: “Elian reached up and took one of my wrists, stopping the motion, looking me up and down. I’m sure he was trying for as a man looks at a woman, but it came off rather more as an engineer looks at a bridge pylon.” (p. 63 of the advance reader copy). At other times, the language was a bit overwrought ("I closed my fingers around the gun, and rose to my feet like the Lady of the Lake." (p. 173))

The ending of The Scorpion Rules surprised me, and the plot took a few turns I did not expect. There is a love triangle of sorts. Granted, it is an unusual triangle – a girl with feelings for a boy and a girl – but still, can’t we be done with love triangles? That aspect of the plot was so, so tired. Greta also develops strong feelings of some sort for Elian almost immediately – not quite insta-love, but insta-something.

Some cultural references fell flat, like a bad football joke and mentions of the Road Runner.  In his Utterances, Talis actually says, “Resistance is futile.” (p. 26). Also, some scenes were a little too reminiscent of The Hunger Games series. For example, Greta is to be tortured, with coverage sent to her mother by video. The producer, Burr, paces about checking camera angles and noting things on a clipboard. He wants the other Children nearby for reaction shots. This scene reminded me very strongly of The Hunger Games (as did the repeated use of the words “Tick Tock Clock Drop”). But I guess it is hard to write a dystopian teen novel and not be compared to The Hunger Games.

The Scorpion Rules is a first book in a series. It does not stand alone. This is a good thing if you really enjoy it and want more. The ending really left a lot of room for exploration in the next book. I would recommend The Scorpion Rules for readers of young adult literature who aren’t yet tired of dystopian works and also for questioning teens, as Greta is also questioning.

I read an advance reader copy of The Scorpion Rules. It is scheduled to be published on September 22 and will be available in the Young Adult section of the Galesburg Public Library.

The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins

The Library at Mount Char is one messed up book. The perverted violence was very hard to take at times. But it is populated by characters who are, in their twisted ways, well developed and interesting. The plot seemed to contain some original ideas (although I am not a horror fan and am not well read in the genre). The book is well written; the narrative flows and kept me reading despite my revulsion at what the characters were doing to one another.

The Library is inhabited by an ancient man who has learned most of the secrets of the cosmos. (I would refer to him as a sorcerer, but the characters are quite firm that there’s “no such thing” as magic.) He is powerful – too powerful, and the U.S. government sends a bomb to destroy him. He lives in the United States in a subdivision. His house serves as a kind of portal to the Library; it is not physically present at that spot. He is barbecuing in the midst of a picnic when the attack happens. But he is able to stop time and save himself and many of the children at the picnic. The children then become his apprentices (or “librarians” as he calls them). Each is studying to become a master of a different “catalog” – death, murder, animals, healing, language and so on. He becomes their replacement “Father” – and he is a cruel and abusive parent. The librarian who studies murder and violence is a particularly good student of Father’s techniques.

When the book begins, Father is missing and the portal to the Library is repelling approach by any of the librarians. The librarians are attempting to find their way in and figure out what has happened – but they most certainly don’t all seem to be working towards the same goal.

For the first half of the book, the fantastical plot was the kind of horror I could suspend my disbelief and buy into. After that there were some plot twists I found a little harder to take. Still, the story wrapped up neatly and cleverly.

I liked the idea of a “heart coal” – a memory you keep in your heart to warm yourself with when your world is otherwise cold. I also liked the character of Erwin Leffington, a complex ex-football player and war hero now serving as a special agent who gets caught up in the machinations of Carolyn, one of the librarians. I felt I could relax a little whenever he entered the story.

The Library at Mount Char is creative and imaginative. It is also twisted and horrific. I will admit: I chose to read this book because of the Library in the title and the librarian label on the characters. If the book had been named the Academy at Mount Char and the characters had been called students, I would probably have bailed on this book. So well done, author, to pull me in by appealing to my love of libraries and librarians.

If you are a fan of horror, I recommend this book. If you are a fan of complex plots and don’t mind horrific abuse against children, you might also give it a try.

I read an advance reader copy of The Library at Mount Char. It is scheduled to be published on June 16.

The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi

The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi has a compelling and believable premise. Set in the near future, water shortages in the west have reached critical levels. In many places, it no longer rains. The states are fighting for what water is available; Texans have become refugees that struggle to cross state borders (often ending up dead and strung up as a warning to others). Catherine Case is a powerful woman who controls much of the water in the west, ensuring that Nevada drinks while other states thirst.

Case employs many people to help her retain her power and her water. One of them is Angel, a former gang member she rescued from prison. He looks like a scary tough guy, scarred and tattooed, but he is a complex and loyal individual. He goes on a mission to Arizona, in its death throes but still hanging on, and gets mixed up in subterfuge over water rights that date back two hundred years. He crosses paths with Lucy, a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist in Phoenix to report on the crisis, and Maria, a Texas refugee determined to survive on her own terms.

The world building is all too easy to believe. Americans have been wasting fresh water for decades in ways that are completely unsustainable. As Angel observes:

“Thanks to the centrifugal pump, places like Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas had thrown on the garments of fertility for a century, pretending to greenery and growth as they mined glacial water from ten-thousand-year-old aquifers. They’d played dress-up-in-green and pretended it could last forever. They’d pumped up the ice age and spread it across the land, and for a while they’d turned their dry lands lush. Cotton, wheat, corn, soybeans – vast green acreages, all because someone could get a pump going. Those places had dreamed of being different from what they were. They’d had aspirations. And then the water ran out, and they fell back, realizing too late that their prosperity was borrowed, and there would be no more coming.” (p. 80 of the advance reader copy)

In Bacigalupi’s world, the Red Cross provides water, and refugee camps spring up around them. The tension between Texans and Arizona natives is palpable. The Chinese build oases for those with money and power. Young women sell their bodies to survive and take drugs to provide false courage.

While the characters are not particularly original types, they are well drawn. They have depth. The intrigue was twisty but not so complicated that it was hard to follow.

Bacigalupi hit only a few false notes for me. For example, Angel thinks about Lucy: “He wanted her. He wanted her like he’d never wanted another woman.” (p. 231 of the ARC). Really? Time to slip into the overblown language of a genre romance? There are descriptions of graphic torture and violence. Angel survives gunshots and trauma that would kill anyone else except maybe Indiana Jones.

Still, I found the book gripping and the future world realistic. If you enjoy dystopian fiction and don’t mind veering off into Hollywood movie territory occasionally, I recommend The Water Knife.

I read an advance reader copy. The Water Knife will be published on May 26. It will be available in the Galesburg Public Library’s New Fiction area after that date.

As You Wish by Cary Elwes

I'm a big fan of the film The Princess Bride, so I eagerly anticipated As You Wish, a book about filming the movie written by Dread Pirate Roberts actor Cary Elwes.

The making of The Princess Bride was clearly one of the highlights of his career and life. If you are looking for dirt, don't look to As You Wish. Elwes is effusive in his praise of his costars and the crew behind the movie. Everyone was beautiful, talented, and perfect for their roles.

The sugary sweetness of the narrative was a little hard to take at times, but I thoroughly enjoyed As You Wish all the same. Elwes spends a lot of time talking about what he and Mandy Patinkin went through to create what Goldman described in The Princess Bride script as the "second-best" swordfighting sequence on film (according to Goldman, the "best" comes later in the movie). The fight and the training were very interesting to read about. The only part of the fight not filmed by the two leads were the somersaults - wow! That had to be a lot of hard work.

I definitely got the impression that Elwes is trying to give his career a shot in the arm by publishing this book. However, his true affection for The Princess Bride and its cast and crew came through.

As soon as I finished the book, I was ready to run off and rewatch The Princess Bride. If you are a fan, that alone is a good reason to read As You Wish. I definitely recommend it for all Princess Bride fans. 

I read an advance reader copy of As You Wish. It will be released on October 14 and will be available in the nonfiction section of the Galesburg Public Library.