‘Scorpion: Second Generation’ – Michael R. Linaker (New English Library)


Well, today was going to be a ‘Doctor Who’ post but this book has been bugging me, since I finished it, so I figured that now was the time to post about it. This one will be a short post but not for the normal work related reasons. The simple fact is that there’s very little that I can add to this tale that I haven’t already said about it’s predecessor. Let me tell you about it, as much as I can anyway…

Nightmare black and hideously armed, they came scuttling and swarming from underground. Ever hungry, ever vicious, they hunted down their prey, clawing, biting, stinging.

The scorpions have returned, this time grown huge, irradiated, mutant. Their claws could strip the living flesh of man or woman down to the white bone. Could snap and splinter the bone into tortured fragments. Gouging, tearing, blinding, they could hold their bloodied victims while they pumped spurts of venom into the agonised body.

The scorpions have returned, and the stench of death seeped out over the countryside.

The further you get into ‘Second Generation’, the more it becomes apparent that it’s basically a re-run of ‘Scorpion’ in terms of both structure and plot. Seriously, the only difference is that the scorpions are a lot bigger this time. I guess that even if you make scorpions a lot bigger, there’s still only so much you can do with them in a book. Still, at least the cover artist didn’t try and put eyes on them this time… 😉

So, where does that leave this post then? Well, most of what I was going to say has already been said in the ‘Scorpion’ review so I’m just going to point you at that instead. Honestly, just swap ‘Scorpion’ for ‘Scorpion: Second Generation’ 😉

How much of an issue was this for me? On the whole, I still enjoyed the read for what it was (as per ‘Scorpion’) but I will admit to getting a little bit bored with the same kind of people being lined up to be taken down by a scorpion. A much larger scorpion, admittedly, but still…

Maybe ‘Scorpion: Second Generation’ isn’t the kind of book that you should pick up straight after reading ‘Scorpion; it’s just too similar to hold your interest and needed to bring something new to the table other than larger scorpions. It did what it needed to though so it wasn’t a complete loss 😉

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