#the scorpion rules

[nellasbookplanet]

Book recs: post- and transhumanism

AKA: cyborgs, uploaded minds, and humans otherwise altered by technology.

I have previously written a rec list for books featuring robots and artificial intelligences, but ended up excluding various titles for not quite fitting the theme. Hence, this list, which focuses more on the step from human into something else, commonly with themes of what it means to be human.

Previous book rec posts:

Really cool fantasy worldbuilding, really cool sci-fi worldbuilding, dark sapphic romances, mermaid books, vampire books, portal fantasies, robots and artificial intelligences

For more details on the books, continue under the readmore. Titles marked with an * are my personal favorites. And as always, feel free to share your own recs in the notes!

The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi*

Place this one in the category of ‘accept that you’re gonna be confused as hell and just let the world wash over you’. The singularity has come and gone and humans can now easily upload, download and copy themselves into new bodies, not all of them human and not always willingly. Consciousnesses and time has become something close to currency. Follows a murder mystery on Mars.

The Scorpion Rules (Prisoners of Peace duology) by Erin Bow*

Young Adult. Featuring a dystopian future in which an AI forcibly keeps world peace by holding the children of world leaders hostage. If anyone attempts to start a war, their child will be executed. Greta is one of these children, kept in a school with others like her. But things start to change one day when a new, less obedient hostage arrives. A unique, slowburn take on the YA dystopian craze, also featuring a bisexual love triangle.

The Adoration of Jenna Fox (Jenna Fox Chronicles) by Mary E. Pearson

Young Adult set in a near future. Jenna wakes from a year long coma after an accident, and something is wrong. Is this really her life? Are her memories her own? Exactly what happened a year ago, and what did her parents do to get her back?

Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky*

Millenia and generation spanning scifi. After the collapse of an empire, a planet once part of a project to uplift other species to sentience is left to develop on its own, resulting not in the intelligent monkeys once intended but in sentient giant spiders. Millenia later, what remains of humanity arrives looking for a new home, only to be met by the artificial remains of the ancient woman who once led the uplift project - and she is not willing to let them on her planet.

War Girls by Tochi Onyebuchi*

In an enviromentally fraught future, the Nigerian civil war has flared back up, utilizing cybernetics and mechs to enhance its soldiers. Two sisters, by bond if not by blood, are separated and end up on differing sides of the struggle. Brutal and dark, with themes of dehumanization of soldiers through cybernetics that turn them into weapons, and the effect and trauma this has on them.

The Ship Who Sang by Anne McCaffrey

1969 classic. Features a future in which children born too weak to survive are put into and raised in mechanical bodies. Helva, one of these children, grows up to be put in charge of her own space ship, from which she works to fulfill various missions out in space, missions which she quickly comes to learn are much more dangerous than she could've imagined.

Cinder (The Lunar Chronicles) Marissa Meyer*

Young Adult fairy tale retelling. Cinder, a cyborg with a mysterious past she can't remember, lives with her stepmother and two stepsisters in New Beijing as a deadly plague ravages the world and a race of Lunar people threaten war against the entire planet. As Cinder becomes entwined with the young prince Kai, she is pulled more and more into dangerous politics that see her as less than human due to her cybernetics, yet need her to save them.

House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds

Six million years in the future, humanity has spread across the entire Milky Way galaxy. Purslane and Campion are both clones of the same woman, sent into the galaxy millions of years ago to explore along with almost a thousand clones like them. Every 200 000 years they all meet to compare memories and experiences. But this time Purslane and Campion arrive late - and discover that a secret millions of years in the making has lead to an extinction level attack against their kind. Now they must find out the truth before their line is completely wiped out. Absolutely wild world-building, featuring various kinds of posthumans (among which the clones are, shockingly, the most similar to people of our time).

Nexus (Nexus trilogy) by Ramez Naam

In a near future, a nano-drug is developed that can link human minds together, having the potential to change humanity forever. As different factions fight over it - some wanting to control it, other to eradicate it, and many to exploit it - a scientist who's caught improving the drug is thrust into a world of danger and international espionage.

Skinned (Cold Awakening trilogy) by Robin Wasserman

Young Adult. Rich girl Lia Kahn had the perfect life - until she died and was brought back by having her memories downloaded into a mechanical body. Despite having her life back, Lia also finds her life changed, as people fear her and treat her differently. Worse; she herself isn't sure if she's still really Lia, or whether she's even a person at all anymore.

Blindsight (Firefall duology)by Peter Watts*

Vampires and aliens and questions of the nature of consciousnesses, oh my. A ship is sent to investigate the sudden appearance of an alien vessel at the edge of the solar system, but the crew, a group of various level of transhumanism, isn't prepared for the horrors awaiting them. No, seriously, this book will fuck you up, highly recommend if you’re okay with a lot of techno babble and existential horror.

Mortal Enginges (Mortal Engines quartet) by Philip Reeve*

Young Adult. On a barely survivable Earth humanity has taken to living on great wandering cities, hunting each other across the plains for resources. Tom lives in London, but when he intervenes to stop a murder, he falls off the city alongside a strange and hostile girl on the hunt for revenge. Together they set out to catch up to the city, but are chased by a murderous machine like being set on stopping them. Trans/posthumanism isn't the main theme of the book, but it continues to grow in importance throughout the series.

Bonus AKA I haven't read these yet but they seem really cool

Meru by S.B. Divya

A human and a posthuman, called an alloy, venture together into space to explore a newly discovered, earth-like planet, testing the future of the relationship between their peoples on the way.

WE by John Dickinson

Humanity has become a hive mind, constantly connected. When Paul is sent on a one-way mission to a frozen moon, he must disconnect from the rest of humanity, for the first time seeing what it has truly become.

Accelerando by Charles Stross

In a time in which the artificial and the posthuman is more and more outpacing the human, something strange enters the solar system and starts dismantling its planets.

Honorary mentions AKA these didn't really work for me but maybe you guys will like them: We Are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis E. Taylor, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow

[quakgrass]

[Image Description: A digital drawing of Talis (in the body of Rachel) and Greta from the book The Scorpion Rules by Erin Bow. Rachel is a pale woman with short black hair, Talis has a fed up expression and carries Greta bridal-style. Greta is in shock, looking extra pale, with her long red hair in a braid. She is holding her broken hands in front of her chest and wearing white clothing. End ID.]

Stop the presses!

[lyinginthesnow]

Greta and Michael | The Swan Riders by Erin Bow

[microwave-radiation]

certain aspects of ninefox gambit reminded me of scorpion rules

[aroaessidhe]

i made a tiktok of all my scorpion rules art from back then

[libraryleopard]

Tor.com’s “This Book Queered Me” series guest blog posts of SFF authors discussing formative queer literature is one of my favorite things to read and occasionally I think about what my version of one of those posts would be. It’s not about your favorite queer book, but about one that affected you deeply, and the series includes both explicitly queer literature and subtext or queer interpretations, which means you can kind of talk about any book there if it was important to you. 

One time I did a deep dive into trying to figure out what the first queer piece of literature I ever read was and determined that it was probably the short story “Am I Blue?” by Bruce Coville, about a boy who is questioning his sexuality and is granted three wishes by his fairy godfather, one of which is to be able to tell the sexualities of other people around him by whether or not they look blue. It was originally published as part of a collection of queer YA stories, but I read it in one of Coville’s collection of short stories, and I remember it being notable for basically being the most first or at least the most obvious gay representation I ever encountered, at age 12. 

I think The Scorpion Rules by Erin Bow is also probably up there as a formative piece of queer literature simply because of the way that Greta’s sexuality was presented in the book–it wasn’t anywhere near the first piece of queer literature I read, but having a character who just has her sexuality filed under “further research required” and was questioning her sexuality in general, not because of a relationship or feelings for a specific person, felt really relatable to me at the time. The Scorpion Rules isn’t really a book about sexuality–it’s about power and politics and sacrifice and artificial intelligence–but somehow that one-line description of Greta’s relationship to her sexuality was very validating and relatable to me in high school. 

[cleopatras-library]

📚🗓 Mid-Year Freakout Tag 2022 🗓📚

jumping on the hype train because it's fun (stolen from @maddiesbookshelves)

How many books have you read so far?

64 (yay power of 2!)

What genres have you read?

Mostly fantasy and sci fi, but also historical fiction and short stories/collections.

Best book you've read so far in 2022?

House in the Cerulean Sea! Reminded me of my childhood fave Lemony Snicket.

Best sequel you've read so far in 2022?

Harrow the Ninth: I think it’s cool how Tamsyn Muir managed to do almost a complete 180 in tone that still worked (for me, at least.)

New release you haven't read yet, but want to

I don’t pay much attention to new releases, but The Great Troll War by Jasper Fforde has been annoying me since it came out (it has confusingly only been released in the UK??).

Most anticipated release for the second half of the year

Either N.K. Jemisin’s next book or Arkady Martine’s next novella.

Biggest disappointment

Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know by Samira Ahmed. The main character is apparently interested in (european) art history, but doesn’t seem to like it too much in the book. Oh, and all the social justice messaging is hopelessly confused. I have a rant longer than it needs to be on my Storygraph.

Biggest surprise

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: written in 1397 and still somehow works for the modern reader (in translation from the old english, of course).

Book that made you cry

The Scorpion Rules by Erin Bow. I reread this one because it’s my favourite dystopia and it hurt more the second time around.

Book that made you happy

Skyfall: The Girl and the Galdurian by Tim Probert! This is ridiculously wholesome and whimsical.

Most beautiful book cover of a book you've read so far this year

This is How You Lose the Time War, it has so many little cohesive details I might die.

How are you doing with your year's goal?

Don’t have one!

What books do you need to read by the end of the year?

Some of the Terry Pratchett books my library was getting rid of: I need to justify having acquired four books based on the author alone.

[little-cereal-draws]

Nimona: when I interact with a new object, I’m gonna look at it for a little bit. I’m gonna reach out, poke it, see if it moves around. I’ll pick it up, wiggle it back and forth…

Nimona: and then that thing goes all the way in my mouth.

Nimona: and if it doesn’t try to get OUT of my mouth… it’s going down the hatch.

Nimona: if you ask me, it’s a pretty good way to do things

[bihansthot]

I’m just gonna say it, I don’t like the way Bi-Han treats Tomas or Kuai Liang and I’m going to punch him for it. They’re his beloved brothers! He should treat them as such, the orphan BS is hilarious but soooooo not ok. My Bi-Han loves his brothers and dotes on them the way a big brother should, there’s no bullshit with him, he’s just a good older brother ok? I will accept no exceptions to this. My Bi-Han is the best, kindest older brother 😭

[cienie-isengardu]

Mortal Kombat 1 Behind the Scenes AU: Get. Lost

[Cage’s Mansion] [Waiting for Liu Kang] [Special Bonus] [Grandmaster’s commentary] [Climbing scene] [Madam Bo’s Inn] [Cage’s Mansion 2 (fire extinguisher)] [Medic] [Shang Tsung’s sad face] [Smoke’s Fall] [Scenography (1)] [Scenography (2)] [Show off!] [Favorite brother] [Climbing on the wall (nonsense)] [Tomas’ commentary] [Perfectly fine] [Sexy, sexy man~♪] [Brothers between filming - Scenography(3)] [Wrong team!] [Since when you two are friends?!] [I like being evil sorcerer more] [I forgot my line, sorry!] [Read the script Kuai!]

[gotitagluglu]

🫐🥭

(I'm working on a series of alternate universes, this is the first of many parts 🫶🏼)

[callmeblake]

From shannon_said's twitter: The video of the Barbie-Oppenheimer question, answers, and resulting mini squabble between Anthony and the rest of the band 🖤💀

L.S. Dunes Q & A at Mr. Smalls Theater, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on July 20th, 2023

[who-do-i-know-this-man]

⚠️Vote for whomever YOU DO NOT KNOW⚠️‼️

[lovelylittlelevity]

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[microwave-radiation]

Technically, like three different Swan Riders characters could wear this shirt

[aroaessidhe]