'Scorpion' – Michael R. Linaker (New English Library)

It's not often that I push the TBR pile to one side and start reading a 'new find' straight away; there are unspoken rules to observe after all and some of those books have been in the pile for literally years... ;o) It's also not often though that I get a weekend to myself and find an intriguing little slice of 'early eighties creature feature'. Creatures, I should say, loads and loads of radioactively mutated scorpions. Well, that was my weekend pretty much booked solid (yes, I went straight on to read 'Scorpion: Second Generation' as well) and here I am to tell you all about it...

A high shrill cry of terror ripped from her throat.

Thousands of black scuttling insects, curving tails arched over their backs and pincered arms splayed out...

They surged towards her, sensing her warmth. The promise of food.

In moments, her body was covered by a flowing blanket of scorpions...

A couple of things before we get onto the book itself. Cast your eyes over the cover and just remind yourself that no matter how bad you were at art, at least you never tried to put human eyes on a picture of a scorpion. Seriously what were they thinking? They got the location of the eyes roughly on target (says Graeme, having done a quick Google image search) but with eyes that no scorpion would ever have. Oh well, I suppose that back in the day, who would have tried to get close enough to draw one? ;o)

And take another look at that blurb... I don't know about you but I always find it a little suspicious when a blurb decides to go down the ol' 'someone's last moments' path rather than talk about the actual plot. It's almost like... there is no plot, just a bunch of people queuing up to be killed off by radioactive scorpions.

And funnily enough... There is no plot, just a bunch of people queuing up to be killed off by radioactive scorpions. I know what you're thinking, how much plot can you be reasonably expected to get out of a book like this? Well, I don't know for sure but I'd like to think a bit more than what's on display here. There are some interesting characters bouncing off each other but they don't do a lot else.

And you know what? Maybe that's ok. I'm kind of half and half on the whole thing but I enjoyed the read and sometimes that's the main thing. 'Scorpion' is an entertaining read if you take it on it's own terms, a little bit of pulp horror where death is not only lurking but described in great detail. You know who is going to die (there are rules you know...) but you don't know exactly when and while that may not make for the most tense read ever, it'll do when the sun is out and you want a read that's a bit of fun but not too taxing. Which is pretty much what 'Scorpion' is, that and a neat little hint at what direction a sequel might take.

Linaker is no Guy N. Smith but he's not far off, he certainly knows what to do with his ingredients and the end result was not only entertaining but enough to make me want to read the next book. Which funnily enough, I'd bought as well. I'll let you know how that went another time, probably tomorrow ;o)