Shadow of the Scorpion [Paperback]

Neal Asher (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2009

Ian Cormac's Early Years! Raised to adulthood during the end of the war between the human Polity and a vicious alien race, the Prador, Ian Cormac, is haunted by childhood memories of a sinister scorpion-shaped war drone and the burden of losses he doesn't remember. Cormac signs up with Earth Central Security and is sent out to help restore and maintain order on worlds devastated by the war. There he discovers that though the Prador remain as murderous as ever, they are not anywhere near as treacherous or dangerous as some of his fellow humans, some closer to him than he would like. Amidst the ruins left by wartime genocides, Cormac will discover in himself a cold capacity for violence and learn some horrible truths about his own past while trying to stay alive on his course of vengeance.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

An energetic, gory prequel to Asher's Polity novels (Gridlinked, etc.), this far-future novel alternates the youthful memories of Ian Cormac, Asher's complex soldier-hero, with Cormac's brutal adult efforts to master lethal-force training as an undercover agent in Earth Central Security's conflict with the terroristic Jovian Separatists. Amistad, an anthropoid war drone Cormac had glimpsed as a boy, resurfaces periodically throughout the novel, a relic of the half-century-old war between humanity's galactic Polity and the vicious alien Prador. Gradually, Cormac's recollections merge with his ECS missions, until finally Amistad reveals what Cormac most needs and fears to know: his father's fate in an earlier battle. This blasting indictment of war forces readers to ponder whether winning can be worth the struggle if it turns the good guys into something worse than their enemies. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

From Bookmarks Magazine

Critics read Shadow of the Scorpion in several different ways. The book can be read as a political commentary on the impacts of war, especially counterinsurgency campaigns, on an individual's memory and personality. Or it can be read as an action-packed, well-plotted story with larger-than-life heroes and highly sophisticated weaponry. It was the coexistence of these two levels of storytelling that impressed reviewers. Those who were fans of Asher's other books felt it lived up to his previous work, but they also recommended Shadow of the Scorpion as a novel that can be read and enjoyed on its own.
Copyright 2009 Bookmarks Publishing LLC --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Night Shade Books (September 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1597801542
• ISBN-13: 978-1597801546
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #389,239 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #36 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Anthologies
  • #41 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Short Stories

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars superb, November 11, 2008

By 

Thomas D. Gulch "tdgulch" (Pennsauken, New Jersey United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Shadow of the Scorpion: A Novel of the Polity (Paperback)

Neal Asher is becoming something of a phenomenon. The man never fails to deliver. This novel 'shadow of the scorpion' could be taken as a prequel to his entire polity universe, the description of Ian Cormac as a child,his first foray into combat with the sparkind and ECS, his first meeting with terrorists or as asher has it 'separatists' and what formed Cormac's life and morality. We meet Cormac's mother, brother and the memory of his heroic and yet tragic father. We discover that it is indeed possible for 'golem' or androids to engage in the sports of venus when it suits them. In it we meet some friends and characters both human and AI from the polity universe brought to life in all of his wonderful 'polity' novels. This being a prequel in no way diminishes any of the fun that Asher's fan's expect and that Asher does, indeed, deliver with a CTD of pure enjoyment. Good going, and I hope Asher never tires of writing these wonderful books.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Ian Cormac: The Early Years, April 5, 2010

By 

Michael Lichter (Buffalo, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Shadow of the Scorpion (Paperback)

Ian Cormac is Neal Asher's James Bond, albeit a Bond colder, more calculating, and deadlier than even the new Daniel Craig version. Cormac's lack of affect and human connection is central to the plot of the first Cormac novel, GRIDLINKED, but how did he become a cold-blooded killer in the first place? Were his parents murdered before his eyes by a petty thug, like Bruce Wayne's in "Batman"? Did he experience some other sort of transformative event?

The best answer I can glean from Asher's sixth Cormac novel, SHADOW OF THE SCORPION, is that he was just born that way. The novel proceeds on two tracks, one dealing with his experiences as an eight-year-old on Earth during the Prador War, and another dealing with his first mission with Earth Central Security at age twenty-two (or so). Cormac's childhood was not idyllic--his father was away fighting in the war, his mother was emotionally fragile and possibly alcoholic, and his older brother returned from the war badly damaged and barely able to talk about the horrors he had witnessed. Cormac wasn't abused or badly neglected, however, and little that happened appeared to faze him. The only shred of psychological explanation is an oblique reference to mild autism.

The core of the novel, however, is not Cormac's childhood but the other track. As a newly minted grunt, Cormac is quickly thrust into an adventure that involves him infiltrating a terrorist network and ultimately chasing a bad guy halfway around the galaxy. By the end, he has advanced into the elite ranks of the Sparkind and is well on his way to becoming a full-fledged Polity Agent. This does little to differentiate SHADOW OF THE SCORPION from the other Cormac novels, but it's done well enough that few Asher fans will complain ... at least not loudly.

The titular scorpion is a war drone that ominously appears several times in the novel, and each time he appears to want to speak with Cormac, but is thwarted. There is clearly some connection between the drone and Cormac's father, but the nature of that connection is left hazy until the very end. Asher provides few clues, leaving the reader to wonder whether the drone might somehow *be* Cormac's father, or might know that Cormac's father is alive somewhere and playing at Darth Vader, or under the spell of an evil wizard, or something like that. The scorpion is in the title, he appears several times in the book, so he must have something really important to say, right? Unfortunately, when Cormac finally catches up with the scorpion, what the scorpion tells us, while sad, will have about as much impact on the reader as it does on Cormac, which is to say not much. And that says a lot about this novel.

SHADOW OF THE SCORPION will appeal most to those who have read most or all of the preceding Cormac novels, and it will make the most sense to readers who have completed at least GRIDLINKED and SPATTERJAY, but readers without prior exposure to Asher and his Polity universe will not be lost.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good solid Asher work, March 12, 2009

By 

Sci Fi Guy (Bowling Green, KY) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Shadow of the Scorpion: A Novel of the Polity (Paperback)

This is another excellent book by Neal Asher (who is fast becoming my favorite author). This book is basicly a little biography of Polity Agent Ian Cormac, starting from his childhood and going thru his younger years. It provides some good background of his development into the character we recognize in Gridlinked and Brass Man, with some interesting little sidetracks into other areas of the Polity universe.

If you like other Neal Asher works this should definitely be a good purchase, used to fill in your knowledge of his Polity