The Swan Riders

by Erin Bow

Overview

Treacherous twists await Greta as the stakes get even higher in this stunning follow-up to the “masterful” (School Library Journal, starred review) novel, The Scorpion Rules.

Greta Stuart has become AI. New transmitters have silvered her fingerprints. New receptors have transformed her vision. And the whole of her memory has become one book in a vast library of instant knowledge. Greta is ready to rule the world.

But the new technology is also killing her.

Greta is only sixteen years old, but her new enhancements are burning through her mortal body at an alarming rate. The leader of the AIs, a ferocious artificial intelligence named Talis, has a plan. Greta can simply do what he’s done when the time comes, and take over the body of one of the Swan Riders, the utterly loyal humans who serve the AIs as part army, part cult.

Now two of the Swan Riders are escorting Talis and Greta across eight hundred miles of post-apocalyptic Saskatchewan. But Greta’s fate has stirred her nation into open rebellion, and the dry grassland may hide insurgents who want to rescue her—or see her killed. Talis has enemies everywhere. And even the Swan Riders may not be everything they seem...

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781481442756
Publisher:	Margaret K. McElderry Books
Publication date:	09/19/2017
Series:	Prisoners of Peace Series
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	293,040
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 7.70(h) x 1.30(d)
Age Range:	14 - 18 Years

About the Author

Erin Bow is the author of The Scorpion Rules, which received three starred reviews and was a Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year and it’s sequel, The Swan Riders, which received two starred reviews. She also wrote the acclaimed Russian-flavored fantasy Plain Kate, which received two starred reviews and was a YALSA Best Book of the Year, and the terrifying YA ghost story Sorrow’s Knot, which received five starred reviews and was a Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year. Visit her at ErinBow.com.

Editorial Reviews

THE SCORPION RULES is a bloody, breath-taking, beautiful book… As a fellow craftsperson I'm leftin awe, and as a reader I'm left feeling transformed.

Zoe Marriott

"I don't know which is more delicious, the storytelling or the villain."

Tone Almhjell

"Bow's vision of our apocalypse is stark, beautiful and terrifying. This is my favourite book."

EK Johnston

"Elegant world-building, white-knuckle plot, and wonderful characters make The Scorpion Rules an extraordinary tale. I couldn't put it down."

V.E. Schwab

Clever and unexpected, THE SCORPION RULES is a game-changing novel about the consequence of war and the brutality of peace. Unforgettable!

Suzanne Young

The Scorpion Rules is one of the most inventive, devious, exciting and thoroughly enjoyable books I’ve read in years. Very highly recommended!

, on The Scorpion Rules - Jonathan Maberry

Bow's amoral artificial intelligence overlord is one of my favorite characters in a while.

Maggie Stiefvater

"This is fearfully superlative storytelling- electrical tension crackles in every elegant word. The finest fiction I've read this year."

, on The Scorpion Rules - Elizabeth Wein

" This is a smart, compelling read that explores the complicated nature of love, family, peace, war, and technology; fans of Johnson’s Summer Prince and Collins’s Hunger Games who are searching for an empowering and intelligent read-alike need look no further."

on The Scorpion Rules The Horn Book Magazine

"Bow has crafted a true sci-fi narrative around the AI premise, utilizing an imaginative world and well-developed characters. Through Greta’s conflicts, the author explores what it means to be human."

on The Scorpion Rules Booklist

★ 08/01/2016
Gr 10 Up—This sequel picks up shortly after the conclusion of The Scorpion Rules. Greta Gustafson Stuart, former princess of the Pan Polar Confederation, is a newly minted Artificial Intelligence. In agreeing to become an AI, Greta has saved herself and fellow hostage Elián Palnik while avoiding the wrath of Talis—the all-powerful AI who rules the world with the judicious use of satellite weaponry, carefully chosen hostages, and his Swan Riders, who act as part army and part cult. Greta is the first new AI in more than a century. Haunted by memories of her time as a hostage growing up at Precepture Four—including torture, friendship, and Xie, the future queen and the lover Greta had to leave behind—the protagonist struggles to cling to what is left of her humanity while learning about her capabilities as an AI. With the future of the world hanging in the balance, Greta will have to use everything she knows about being AI and human to bring her two dramatically different worlds together. Quick recaps and Greta's own memories bring readers up to speed in this fast-paced sci-fi novel, although having knowledge of the first book is ideal. Bow dramatically expands the world here by introducing more of the landscape as Talis, Greta, and two Swan Riders travel across Saskatchewan toward the AI home base near Montana. Interludes from Talis's point of view—in his present form as an all-powerful AI and in flashbacks to his time as the idealistic Michael Talis, who wanted to save the world—add another dimension to this disturbingly likable character. Weighty subject matter and heavy questions about what is best vs. what is right are tempered with humor and Greta's wry first-person narration. Like its predecessor, this installment has a thoughtfully diverse cast of characters with familiar faces and newer additions, including Francis Xavier, a stoic, dark-skinned Swan Rider born with one hand. VERDICT A fascinating follow-up and stunning story that is a must-read for fans of the first volume.—Emma Carbone, Brooklyn Public Library

School Library Journal

★ 2016-06-28
A girl, remade, might just remake the world. Princess Greta Stuart of the Pan Polar Confederacy was tortured and killed, then remade through politics and science into the first new AI in over a century (The Scorpion Rules, 2015). Now it’s time for Talis, the godlike, peace-dictating AI (who blows up cities to ensure compliance), to bring her home to the Red Mountains. But he’s currently in a vulnerable human body, subject to attacks both emotional and physical. Bow’s second volume starts slow, almost bogging down in minutiae, then accelerates to an extraordinary conclusion. This is not a fault: the slowness is an exquisite example of showing. Greta is AI, and AI tend to focus on minutiae. As Greta loses her humanity the narrative slows, swallowed in detail and exposition—only to switch pace and subtly alter in voice as she regains the qualities that make her human. All of this plays out against small human dramas and intense political plotting, all focused on an exploration of power, corruption, and compassion. Are there a few references that seem too now? Sure. Does it matter? Not at all; this is a treatise on humanity and love and the importance of caring—and also a sharp science-fiction novel of a weirdly plausible future. Brilliant and compelling: don’t miss this. (Science fiction. 13 & up)

Kirkus Reviews