Michelle Herbert reviews Age of Scorpio by Gavin Smith…
The Age of Scorpio is a sci-fi novel, which travels through time and space. The book is structured into three very different time periods, with each chapter moving from one to another, rotating between the future, the past and the present. This can at times be frustrating as you may want to stick with a particular story line or jump ahead to see what happens next. I found that I was continually searching for links between these sections.
The book starts with a chapter called A Long Time After the Loss; this is set far into humanity’s future. Where Earth is now an almost mythical planet lost centuries ago. Humanity itself is augmented with neunonics (this allows people to control technology with a thought) and have expanded through known space. The future belongs to many different factions, with the main two being The Church and The Monarchists, these control what passes for society. In the time after the loss the main characters are Scab and Vic that do not seem to be part of either of the factions, but as bounty hunters are working for an unknown benefactor who along with every other major player wants them to deliver a mysterious artefact found in Red Space.
The second time period is Northern Britain, A Long Time Ago; this is Ancient Britain where magic is still felt and people live within clan systems. The main character Britha is the Ban Draoi of The Cirig. The Cirig are an important clan of the Pecht. Being a ban draoi (A Dryw) Britha is the person that stands between her clan and the Otherworld, where the people beyond live. In this period darkness is spreading through Britain led by a man named Bress who with his men are killing or enslaving everyone that stands in their way. Britha takes it upon herself to free the rest of her sets her on a path that she could never imagine even with her knowledge of the Otherland.
The final time period is called Now; this is the closest version to our reality, with technology levels almost identical. In the Now there are two very different characters whose stories are told. First there is Beth, after being freed from prison is now looking for her sister who has left Bradford to start a new life for herself. The other is Du Bois, an agent of The Circle and our first indication that this is not the world we live in. Du Bois has access to what he calls ancient technology and yet it is this technology that seems like the basis for that used in the future.
Each character is on their own version of a quest and The Age of Scorpio is set up in a way so that the characters are taken on a journey filled with perils and bloodshed as they slowly make their way to their destinations. Whether the journey has a satisfactory outcome for each of the characters you will have to see for yourself.
The future sections can be jarring at times, as Scab and Vic’s partnership is not equal. Scab is in charge of their mission to retrieve a cocoon, but keeps Vic continually in the dark as to the full details of their job, just as we as the readers are trying to keep up with the vast amounts of detail. As bounty hunters are Scab and Vic working for themselves with every faction seen as the enemy? Du Bois is also at the top of his game, as a top level agent of The Circle a murky organisation who may be trying to save humanity. Will he lose faith in the cause he has been protecting for centuries? With the wonders and terrors he has seen through his long life can he be certain that he has made the right choices or has he just become an unthinking weapon of the Circle?
Beth and Britha are very strong characters; they are both head strong and willing to throw themselves into danger, even when they know it may be their own death they are facing. Beth’s eyes are opened as she travels the UK in search of her sister. Beth refuses to give up until she knows whether her sister is alive or dead even as reality becomes incomprehensible to her. Britha’s drive to save her clan makes her power hungry and blind to the truths around her. For all her power which increases as she follows her missing clan, she comes to realises how small her world truly was. For all Britha’s knowledge she is walking on the borders of the Otherworld and it is only by working with others that she may be able to succeed in reclaiming her lost clan. As the journey continues Britha will need to see how far she will leave her old self behind to achieve her goals.
In each time period there are a myriad of other characters that I will not name here. Each of these characters are well written, so that you are never know whether they will be disposable or where these characters will lead us plot wise. The sections are also rich in detail, the world building is very thought out from the Cirig’s round houses in the past, to the streets of Portsmouth in the Now. I think that it is the human interaction that really allows the book to stand out.
I really enjoyed The Age of Scorpio; there are moments that felt frustrating where you know you have to be patient between chapters, waiting to find out what happened at the cliff hanger of a particular period leaves you wanting more. I believe that The Age of Scorpio has something for everyone, although if violence is not your thing then you may want to avoid it, as there are many ingenious ways to die in this book. The Age of Scorpio like a lot of my favourite books left me with a lot of questions. I am glad that Gavin Smith’s follow up A Quantum Mythology may have the answers to some of them.
Michelle Herbert
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL18yMRIfoszFLSgML6ddazw180SXMvMz5&v=pnc360pUDRI&feature=player_embedded
Originally published April 27, 2015. Updated April 14, 2018.
