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  • Shadow of the Scorpion

  • By: Neal Asher
  • Narrated by: Ric Jerrom
  • Length: 12 hrs and 19 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (104 ratings)
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Shadow of the Scorpion

By: Neal Asher
Narrated by: Ric Jerrom
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Summary

Ian Cormac was raised to adulthood during the end of the war between the human Polity and the vicious arthropoid race the Prador.

In Neal Asher's Shadow of the Scorpion, Cormac is haunted by childhood memories of a sinister scorpion-shaped war drone and the burden of losses he doesn't remember.

In the years following the war, he signs up with Earth Central Security and is sent out to help either restore or simply maintain order on worlds devastated by Prador bombardment.

There he discovers that though the old enemy remains as murderous as ever, it is not anywhere near as perfidious or dangerous as some of his fellow humans, some of them closer to him than he would like.

Amidst the ruins left by wartime genocides, he discovers in himself a cold capacity for violence, learns some horrible truths about his own past and, set upon a course of vengeance, tries merely to stay alive.

©2017 Neal Asher (P)2017 Macmilan Digital Audio

What listeners say about Shadow of the Scorpion

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Surprisingly moving

The beginning of Ian Cormack’s story. I won’t give any spoilers, but this is as good as it gets for a prequel. Peter Nobel’s narration is spot on, as usual.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great book

really enjoyed this and its been many years since I read the book, glad I bought the audible book.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A great introduction to Agent Cormac

I would like to start by saying my previous listen with this narrator was negative and I was not going to purchase more books he narrates but I was keen to hear this book, the narrator has improved dramatically! As for the actual book, I am really enjoying my Neal Asher binge at present and look forward to my next listen as I’m invested in the Polity universe Neal has created

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

A much better reading of a good book!

A good story that jumps around a bit, especially in the last few chapters, where it flip-flops between the past and present of the main character.

I'm not going to go into the story at all, as it is too easy to drop spoilers, but I will say that the characters are believable (mostly), and I found it easy to engage with the overall scenario presented.

As for the Performance:
I don't know how it happened, but someone reigned-in Ric Jerrom's over-enthusiastic 'bedtime-story narration' style.
A massive improvement over what he did to "Prador Moon."

I've bought the next in this sequence already and am really looking forward to it.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Shadow of the Scorpion

Immensely disappointing. Simplistic, juvenile rubbish. I didn’t like the narration, it all sounded so false and unbelievable, (accepting the fact that it is a Sci-Fi book). I had been looking forward to this after The Technician and Prador Moon. Not sure that I will bother with the rest of series. Avoid.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Interesting series start but childish at many levels

I had read the Rise of the Jain series which I very much enjoyed. I found Shadow of the Scorpion to be promising but the dialogue and the narration often made me think i’d walked into a kindergarten class. The main protagonist Cormac was learning and growing but even in his adult life his speech and thinking sounded like that of a four year old. I will however try the next book to see how close it gets to the Rise of the Jain.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Not bad. Not as good as his later polity work

Comparing this to Asher’s more recent books you can tell the difference- this feels a bit more clunky and the plotting doesn’t feel quite so compelling.

Still, not bad, just not as good as other stuff he’s done.

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