The Scorpion Rules by Erin BowMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
*ARC received via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review*
Once Upon a Time, at the End of the World...
Great Gustafsen Stuart, Duchess of Halifax and Crown Princess of the Pan Polar Confederacy. She is a future ruler of a superpower and has been a hostage since age 5. Under the Children of Peace program each ruler must forfeit their child in order to insure peace. Don't have a child? Sorry, you aren't qualified to rule! When a leader acts out of turn, such as starting disputes/wars with other countries, the children pay for it. Greta's country is on the verge of war. When it comes she knows her life will be over. She will be taken to the grey room, just as the others before her and no one knows what happens after.
Greta's world has been the same for 7 generations. It is just the way things are; her duty. So when the Children see the plume of dust on the horizon they know that one of them is next. But when a new hostage arrives, he threatens to change everything the Children thought they knew about their lives, especially Greta. She will see her life from an entirely different perspective.
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So this was't what I expected.
The first half of the book was promising, but I just didn't care for the way it went the last half. I really had to push myself to read it. Certain parts of the book I could have done without. The goats are one. I just seems unnecessary to talk about the sexuality of a goat. That's right people, goat hormones.
Greta was a strange character. She is very set in the world she lives in. And I think she has accepted her death sentence, until Elian comes and shows his rebellion to the system. And she doesn't quite change in the way that you would think, but I think she becomes more regale because of it.
I wasn't a huge fan of the love triangle. Greta knew Xie all their lives and is just now seeing her as more than a friend? Of course there's Elian. Dear sweet, rebellious Elian, whom I found to be quite the idiot at times.
No these main characters were not the best.
The Holy Utterances of Talis and the character himself were the highlights of the book. He is a strange guy, but clearly brilliant in order to come up with the whole idea. He basically is training them as children to became puppets to his liking. The thing is, it actually worked. He was able to get the entire world to play his game, his way, and her ended up ruler of the world. I like that his writings were shared because I found them quite entertaining. Through them we are able to determine what kind of person the ruler of the world really is. He is calculated but also has a very laid back was of thinking, along the lines of: Yeah I bomb cities, but its not a big deal; doesn't really work (other than kill millions of people!!).
There's a math to it, blowing up cities. When you're strictly interested in the head count, when that's your currency, blowing up cities gets expensive. You can do it once in a while, but you can't make a regular habit of it. Costs too much.
No blowing up cities doesn't work, not in the long term. You've got to find something that the people in charge aren't willing to give up. A price they aren't willing to pay. Which leads us to Talis's first rule of stopping wars: make it personal. And that, my dear children---that is where you come in.
Overall, I'd say it's a pretty average book. I liked the world that was created and Talis was an awesome villain for creating this strange yet brilliant Children of Peace. I still love that idea.
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