{"id":6596,"date":"2015-09-22T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-09-22T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/booksyalove.com\/?p=6596"},"modified":"2015-09-21T11:51:56","modified_gmt":"2015-09-21T16:51:56","slug":"scorpion-rules-by-erin-bow-book-review-hostages-for-peace-or-pawns-in-greater-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/?p=6596","title":{"rendered":"Scorpion Rules, by Erin Bow (book review) – hostages for peace or pawns in greater game?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"book<\/a>To keep the peace,
\nno price is too high –
\nif children are the hostages.<\/p>\n

Four hundred years from now, the artificial intelligence<\/a> Talis ensures world peace by holding rulers’ heirs as hostages – attack another country for its water, and your heir is executed on the spot.<\/p>\n

A new alliance brings a new boy to the remote Canadian prairie where princess Greta has spent a decade lived for years as schoolchild hostage, and he doesn’t plan on staying there quietly…<\/p>\n

Happy book birthday to The Scorpion Rules<\/em>\u00a0 – fittingly, yesterday (21 Sept.) was International Peace Day.<\/p>\n

Erin Bow also wrote mystical Plain Kate<\/em> (my no-spoilers review here<\/a>), and her tale-spinning of a former time works well in this too-possible future narrative.<\/p>\n

A bitter and breathtaking view of world peace at great cost.
\n**kmm<\/p>\n

Book info<\/strong>: The Scorpion Rules \/ Erin Bow. Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2015. [author site<\/a>]\u00a0 [publisher site<\/a>]\u00a0 Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.<\/p>\n

My book talk<\/strong>: Hostage princess Greta prays that her country stays at peace so she stays alive, but a new Child of Peace is ready to gamble away his life in this water-poor future where omniscient AI Talis holds all the cards.<\/p>\n

Humanity can no longer wage war from a distance, 400 years after nearly nuking itself extinct, as Talis holds rulers’ heirs hostage throughout childhood, executing any whose home country attacks another.<\/p>\n

Yet newly arrived teen Elian doesn’t care to follow Talis’ strict rules, and Greta gradually begins to question the generations-old method of peacekeeping too.<\/p>\n

She’s spent years at this remote Canadian location with other royal youth, learning from AI tutors and working to raise their own food – how can Elian become part of their group so quickly?<\/p>\n

Her roommate and first love Xie counsels patience as Elian’s foolish remarks (and threats to Talis) earn him terrible scorpion shocks from their proctors and raise new feelings in Greta.<\/p>\n

Surely Greta will survive these last few months until her 18th birthday and return to the palace in Halifax – unless the new confederacy that sent Elian as hostage is a threat to her mother’s kingdom…<\/p>\n

Elian’s favorite historical person is Spartacus, Talis decides to communicate directly with Greta, and long-quiet concerns suddenly flare to life – nothing for the Children of Peace will never be the same.\u00a0 (One of 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To keep the peace, no price is too high – if children are the hostages. Four hundred years from now, the artificial intelligence Talis ensures world peace by holding rulers’ heirs as hostages – attack another country for its water, and your heir is executed on the spot. A new alliance brings a new boy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,68,62],"tags":[22,4,92,11,20,5,37,16,18,44,43,187,39,49,31,15,189,217,21,35,33,58,3,6,59],"class_list":["post-6596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction","category-future","category-science-fiction","tag-behavior","tag-belonging","tag-canada","tag-communication","tag-conflict","tag-coping","tag-death","tag-determination","tag-family","tag-friendship","tag-growing-up","tag-lgbtq","tag-love","tag-memories","tag-non-us-author","tag-relationships","tag-robots","tag-royalty","tag-self-image","tag-surprises","tag-survival","tag-technology","tag-teens","tag-travel","tag-war"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6596"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6596\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6686,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6596\/revisions\/6686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}