Note: I received an e-ARC of The Swan Riders from the publisher via Netgalley, for review consideration.
The Scorpion Rules was one of my favorite books of 2015, so I obviously snapped up the sequel, The Swan Riders, as soon as it showed up on Netgalley. I cannot talk about this book without giving major spoilers for The Scorpion Rules, so if you haven’t read Scorpion Rules yet, dash off and do that real quick, and meet me back here afterwards. IT IS REALLY GOOD, a take on YA dystopia that zigs when you think it will zag and values a wide range of skills and values (i.e., there’s a character who perpetually rages against the machine, and there’s characters who recognize that this isn’t always the best strategy to get what you want).
Okay. Did you non-Scorpion Rules readers leave?
Good. Onward. The Swan Riders begins where The Scorpion Rules left off, with Greta trying to adjust to being an AI, and Talis — occupying the body of a Swan Rider named Rachel — intent on getting her to safety and making sure that she makes the transition safely. The whole project is hideously derailed when a faction of Canadians attack Talis, Greta, and their Swan Rider escort, Francis Xavier, and to say more would be to deprive you of the many wonderful twists and turns this book takes.
Though The Swan Riders didn’t perpetually upend my expectations the way Scorpion Rules did — largely because now I know a little better what to expect from Erin Bow — it was an absolutely wonderful follow-up. So many sequels fall victim to the idea that they have to make the foes of the second book huger and more terrifying, stacking the odds ever more heavily against the protagonist. Erin Bow dodges that bullet.
In The Swan Riders, Greta is allied with a being who is functionally all-powerful, so to give them a foe worthy of their steel would have been quite some trick. Sure, they can be attacked while they’re out in the wilds of Canada (excuse me, the Pan Polar Alliance), but you know that Talis has the power to just start blowing up everything whenever he feels like it, so it would be difficult to find an antagonist who could stand up to that. Instead, Erin Bow locates the book’s major conflict within her little group of three: Talis, Greta, and Francis Xavier. The world hands them a set of bad choices, and it’s up to them — mainly up to Greta, since Talis is all pragmatism and no heart, and Francis Xavier has sworn an oath to obey them no matter what — to figure out the best of a bad lot.
All of that’s a little vague for avoidance-of-spoilers purposes, but I will say that Erin Bow does a plot thing that’s one of my favorite types of plot things, when done well: What seems to arise from complex political motivations ends up being very simple and very personal, and it packs a hell of a punch as you head into the final third of the book, and the characters really and truly have to decide what they, and their world, are going to look like.
Or to put it another way: I cried on the bus reading this. Twice.
We don’t see much of Talis in The Scorpion Rules, and what we do see is not much to his credit. The Swan Riders gives us much much more Talis, and since he is a type of character I absolutely cherish — smart-mouthed, brilliant, and viciously pragmatic — this was a good time for me. If you are a fan of a particular type of character that is Tony Stark, I promise much enjoyment out of Talis.
“We’re equals.”
“Oh,” I said. “In that case, I would like to propose that peace achieved through terror can never truly be peace. We should release all the Precepture hostages and shut down the orbital weapons platforms.”
“Okay,” said Talis. “We’re equals, but you’re a dewy-eyed moron.”
“We would not have come this far if that were even remotely true.”
“Fair point. Let me put it this way instead: no.”
Y’all, this series. I love it. Please read, then come back and scream at me about your feelings.