The Scorpion Rules

The Scorpion Rules is a dystopian young adult novel by Erin Bow, published in 2015. Set four hundred years in the future, it is about a post-apocalyptic world run by AI. The children of all the world leaders are being held hostage in exchange for peace between all nations; if any nation goes to war, its heir is murdered. Most hostages accept that they may die before age eighteen. But things change when a new hostage is introduced, one who hasn’t been indoctrinated to accept his fate. Bow was a physicist and poet before becoming a young adult novelist. Her other works include Plain Kate and Sorrow’s Knot.

The novel’s premise is that after the polar ice caps melted, many countries sunk beneath the ocean with disastrous results. Freshwater became scarce, and the remaining countries went to war over this limited resource. Desperate, the UN turned control over to a pioneering form of artificial intelligence, Talis, tasking him with maintaining world peace. And Talis did—by blowing up a city every time a new conflict broke out. That helped, but it wasn’t a strategy that could last forever. So, Talis found a better way: “make it personal.” He established a system to hold the children of all world leaders hostage, rounding them up in Preceptures from childhood until the age of eighteen. If their parents declare war, they will be killed. If they survive to age eighteen, they’ll be released to rule and to someday send their own children as hostages.

Greta, Crown Princess of the Pan Polar Confederacy, has lived in a Precepture most of her life, along with a handful of other hostages from around the world, including her best friend, the goddess-like Princess Xie. The children are surrounded by AI, including their tutor, Father Abbot, who raises them as automatons rather than human children. They study philosophies such as Stoicism, as well as the Utterances, a collection of quotes from Talis that have been made into something like a holy text. His Utterances are surprisingly irreverent and filled with pop culture references and jokes incongruent with his ruthlessness.



The children accept that their lives may be forfeit, believing they must face that fact with dignity. They live simple lives gardening and raising goats. Greta, in particular, understands that she may not survive her childhood. The Pan Polar Confederacy controls the Great Lakes, one of the largest remaining sources of fresh water. Other countries could easily invade and spell war—and death.

One day, Greta sees a Swan Rider, one of Talis’s human messengers, approaching. She is sure this means her death has come; Swan Riders escort hostages to the grey room where they will be killed. But she’s wrong. The Swan Rider has come for Sidney, heir to the Mississippi Delta Confederacy. Sidney is taken away and killed; the other children grieve.

This war brings a change that no one expected: a new nation forms called the Cumberland Alliance. And Cumberland’s leader, General Wilma Armenteros, must send her grandson Elian as a hostage. The trouble with Elian is that unlike the other hostages, he hasn’t been raised to accept his death. He arrives angry and in chains.



Elian doesn’t understand life at the Precepture like the others. They know that if they step out of line, they will be tortured, all of them, as a group punishment. Elian has to learn that. He tries to resist the AI that populates the Precepture, receiving electroshocks for his trouble.

Elian’s anger changes Greta. His refusal to accept fate makes her realize she doesn’t have to accept hers; that it might be possible for her to rebel, or even escape. She also begins to realize that she does have feelings. Maybe feelings for Elian—or for Princess Xie. She and Xie even share a kiss.

The conflict becomes worse. The Cumberland Alliance, desperate for water, wants access to the Great Lakes. They declare war on the Pan Polar Confederacy. Greta fears that both her life and Elian’s are forfeit. Father Abbot begins to show Greta a special kindness. He is a Class Two AI, which means his consciousness was once human, uploaded into a robotic body, so he may have a glimmer of humanity left. He tells her there is another option than her death: there are two doors in the grey room. One is death, and one is the Class Two procedure, the “upload.”



General Wilma invades the compound, hoping to save Elian from death at the other hostages’ expense. The children are taken by surprise, and one, Grego, is shot. Accompanying Wilma is a man named Tolliver Burr, who introduces himself as a “communications specialist.” He takes Greta away for an interview, and she learns what he really is: a torturer. Wilma and Burr kill Father Abbot when he refuses to cooperate with their demands. They set up a video link to Greta’s mother and begin to torture her, hoping to force the Queen into surrender. Burr places Greta’s hands into an apple press and begins to crush her hands.

Help comes from an unexpected corner: Talis himself arrives at the Precepture. His consciousness exists in the body of one of his female Swan Riders. He attacks the Cumberland Army, which attempts to barricade itself against him. He intervenes and saves Greta. Though Talis is responsible for so many deaths, he is strangely paternal, referring to the hostages as “his” and expressing regret for the damage done to Greta’s hands.

Greta knows Elian will be killed for what General Wilma has done. But she has a plan to save him. She goes to Talis and makes him a deal: her life for Elian’s safety. She agrees to undergo the upload process. Talis, too, is a Class Two AI and was once a human named Michael. And he’s lonely; many AI have been killed or destroyed over the years. Talis agrees but warns her that many humans are unable to survive the process. They have to be willing.



Greta tells him she is unafraid and willing to join him. Her last night as a human, Elian tells her he loves her. She says she cares about him but doesn’t love him—she is in love with Xie. She and Xie admit their feelings for one another and spend the night together.

Greta survives the process. Elian is set free, though Talis kills Wilma for her transgressions. Talis takes the newly-AI Greta with him to the Red Mountains.

The Scorpion Rules received praise for its original premise and surprising twists on typical dystopian story elements. It was awarded the CLA Book of the Year for Young Adults. In 2016, Bow wrote a sequel, The Swan Riders, following the AI Greta and the fate of the world following her transformation.