The Scorpion Rules

Starred review from June 15, 2015
In this gripping dystopian adventure, Bow (Sorrow’s Knot) explores the price of power. Four centuries after an AI known as Talis took over the world to prevent humanity from wiping itself out, civilization has splintered into smaller territories, held in line through Talis’s orbital cannons, AI agents, and one simple philosophy: make it personal. Every would-be ruler must send a child to one of Talis’s Preceptures as a hostage, to be slain if his or her country acts up. One such hostage is Greta, Duchess of Halifax and Crown Princess of the Pan Polar Confederacy. Her daily routine is thrown into confusion when a new hostage joins her Precepture. Elián has no intention of playing along, and his arrival threatens to change everything. Greta’s pragmatic, reserved, yet passionate voice commands attention from the start, but in many ways it’s Talis, an AI with a sense of humor and a flair for the dramatic, that makes the story. Bow continually yanks the rug out from under readers, defying expectations as she crafts a masterly story with a diverse cast, shocking twists, and gut-punching emotional moments. Ages 14–up. Agent: Jane Putch, Eyebait Management.

August 1, 2015
Grades 9-12 In the future, Talis (once human, now AI) rules the world, and peace is maintained by holding world leaders' children hostage in Preceptures until their eighteenth birthdays. These Children of Peace, including roommates Greta and Xie, are educated to rule, and they never consider challenging the system until Elian, a new hostage, arrives. Greta feels as if she has been awakened to possibilitiespolitical, personal, and sexualby both Elian and Xie, but when Elian's grandmother blasts into their Precepture to use Greta for political ends, everything changes. Peace now hinges on whether or not Greta will agree to become AI herself. Bow has crafted an authentic sci-fi narrative around the AI premise, utilizing an imaginative world and well-developed characters. Through Greta's conflicts, the author explores what it means to be human and gives readers a glimpse inside the mind of artificial intelligence. Fans of Star Trek and 2001: A Space Odyssey will appreciate this novel, which paves the way for a sequel.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)

Starred review from August 1, 2015

Gr 9 Up-Talis's first rule for stopping war is to make it personal. The powerful AI ensures the world's leaders know the exact cost of any declaration of war by taking their children hostage as Children of Peace. If war is declared, the lives of both nation's hostages are forfeit. Greta Gustafson Stuart, Duchess of Halifax and Crown Princess of the Pan Polar Confederation, is a seventh generation hostage at Precepture Four where she has lived most of her life. She embodies the ideals of the Children of Peace and knows to follow the rules even with her country on the brink of war. New hostage Elian Palnik refuses to accept any of the tenets of the Children of Peace, causing Greta to question everything she believes. Masterful, electric prose and wit make even the hardest moments bearable in this work as Greta and her friends endure countless hardships with the grace and aplomb befitting the world's future leaders. Bow weaves together science, ethics, and humor in this science fiction novel that delves deep into the human condition and questions the nature of choice and what must be sacrificed for the sake of the greater good. This book is further strengthened by a diverse, memorable cast of characters with realistically complicated relationships (romantic and platonic), brilliant plotting, and shocking twists. Guaranteed to have high appeal on many levels. VERDICT Bow delivers a knockout dystopian novel that readers will devour with their hearts in their mouths.-Emma Carbone, Brooklyn Public Library

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from July 1, 2015
Once there was war, until an artificial intelligence named Talis took over the world. Four hundred years later, Talis still rules; he has made the world peaceful, but the price is the blood of children. Should a government declare war, its heir, raised in a U.N.- (and Talis-) controlled Precepture, a monasterylike enclave, dies. Greta, Crown Princess of the Pan Polar Confederacy, is one of those Children of Peace. When war claims classmate Sidney and his replacement appears in chains, obedient Greta finds herself questioning everything. This is no cookie-cutter dystopia. Talis (whose voice lends a sharp, outsize, and very dark humor to his every word and scene) may not be a bad supreme ruler. The boy (Elian) is not Greta's love interest (Princess Xie is), and anyway the love story is only a piece of a much larger story about love and war, forms of power, and the question of what is right when there is no good answer, all played out on a small and personal stage. Bow's writing never falters, from the vivid descriptions of the Precepture goats to the ways in which her characters must grapple with impossible decisions, and she is equally at home with violence and first kisses. Slyly humorous, starkly thought-provoking, passionate, and compassionate-and impeccably written to boot: not to be missed. (Science fiction. 13 & up)

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