The Scorpion Rules

By: Erin Bow

Narrated by: Madeleine Maby

In the future the UN has brought back an ancient way to keep the peace. The children of world leaders are held hostage - if a war begins, they pay with their lives.

Greta is the crown princess of the Panpolar Confederacy, a superpower formed of modern-day Canada. She is also a child of peace, a hostage held by the de facto ruler of the world: the great artificial intelligence, Talis. The hostages are Talis' strategy to keep the peace: If her country enters a war, Greta dies.

The system has worked for centuries. Parents don't want to see their children murdered.

Greta will be free if she can make it to her 18th birthday. Until then, she is prepared to die with dignity if necessary. But everything changes when Elian arrives at the prefecture. He's a hostage from a new American alliance, and he defies the machines that control every part of their lives - and is severely punished for it. Greta is furious that Elian has disrupted their quiet, structured world. But slowly his rebellion opens her eyes to the brutality of the rules they live under and to the subtle resistance of her companions. And Greta discovers her own quiet power.

Then Elian's country declares war on Greta's and invades the prefecture, taking the hostages hostage. Now the great Talis is furious and coming himself to mete out punishment - which surely means that Greta and Elian will be killed...unless Greta can think of a way to save them.

©2015 Erin Bow. All rights reserved. (P)2015 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

A very compelling book

The story was amazing, I couldn't stop listening.

The only thing that held it back, in my opinion, was the narration. It wasn't terrible, but some of the character's voices were inconsistent and I wasn't always sure who was supposed to be talking.

V much good

Narrator has very weird stilted delivery, with a lot of unnecessary pauses in the middle of lines and terrible accents. Story was excellent, with compelling characters and ideas.

Awesome setting, lacks character depth

I loved the futuristic setting and the descriptions- they offered a glimpse, but didn't take up half the book. I think that the awesome setting and plot would've made for a masterpiece had the characters not lacked so much emotion! I didn't feel connected to them or moved by their struggles and emotions. They seemed quite distant.

I'd love a sequel- with some more character depth.

Wonderfully Surprised

I wasn't sure that I was going to like this book, but quickly found myself absolutely immersed in the audiobook as I was driving long distances between my residence and my parents' residence!

The characters are enticing and you quickly find yourself rooting for all of them in what seems to be an impossible situation. There wasn't a single character I didn't like (except Tolliver Burr for clear cut reasons). If you like YA dystopian literature, you will love this one. I'd say it's similar to The Hunger Games, but it sort of marches to the beat of its own drum in an amazing way!

I will absolutely be adding this to my classroom library next school year and I'm so glad that I already have the second book sitting on my shelf :)

Fantastic

Great story and reader. The use of AI and hostage children in a post apocalyptic world was fantastic. One of my new favourites