What's the Name of That Book??? discussion
This topic is about
The Night of the Scorpion
SOLVED: Children's/YA
>
SOLVED. 90s or 80s Sci Fi with boy facing desert marked with grid of Tron-like lights at night on cover. [s]
date
newest »
newest »
message 1:
by
Victorie
(new)
-
added it
Mar 10, 2014 09:56PM
Anyone know the name of this book or recognize the cover art? I read it back in the mid 90s and stole it from my brother who was in high school. I mostly remember the cover. It has a young man facing a desert at night with some sort of blue light / energy set out like a grid on the cracked earth. If you take the bookcover art for The Artificial Kid and superimpose that matrix/Tron-like grid and night sky onto Gary Paulsen's Transall Saga cover art of the boy running through the desert, you'll have the book I'm looking for. The book is set in modern day and there is no time travel to a future or past society (that cuts out a lot of books). The main character is a young man. I don't remember the plot, but I recall that there was a lot of running and blue Tron-like lights, almost like a matrix or energy field is bursting forth from the landscape. This only seemed to be happening when he is fighting / running alone. No other characters ever encounter this (which makes me wonder if this could be a psychological thriller that my 11 year old brain didn't understand). He generally avoids the light as it causes the earth to open up and quake and will probably kill him if he touches it (This is more of a feeling rather than a solid memory of the plot). I vaguely have the impression that whatever is causing this energy/light is going to destroy the Earth or some how is a threat beyond just himself. The energy acts a lot like I'd imagine Green Lantern's energy constructs act, but I don't recall any particular person/alien being responsible for the energy. I think he fought a giant scorpion construct (or some other similar creature) made of energy/light at the end of the book in a desert outside of his hometown. Arizona? New Mexico? Texas? Also, he was mostly alone in his quest. I don't recall any friends, though there was likely an old man that told him he had to be the one to defeat/face whatever the nemesis was. The rest of the world doesn't realize that this whole battle is going on and at the end, you think "Well, he saved the world but no one even knew it was about to be torn apart!" I think the hero even goes home to have dinner with his mom after the final scene and you realize that she probably won't even realize why he is late and dirty. Although, that could be remembering this wrong. I do remember he was alone in his battle though. It seems like the book could be a grandfather to the Michael Vey or Daniel X series in that the hero (teenage boy), the journey (an epic battle being fought outside of the awareness of the rest of the world), and the electric powers of at least one character/being are quite similar. I would say if you took Tron's light effects, Michael Vey's or Daniel X's hero and hero's journey dynamic, and an evil Green Lantern as the nemesis and mashed them together in a desert night-time battle, then you'd have this book. There might have been some "dimensional" shifts and localized earthquakes (it seems the earth opened up or was split by the lightning-like nemesis during the final battle), but no significant time travel to other/future cultures or plagues. It all takes place on present day earth. I don't recall a lot of interaction with other characters once he starts down his path. (So Card's Enders' Game, Stewart's Earth Abides, and Paulsen's Transall Saga are out). Of course, at 11 I probably didn't fully realize what I was reading, so who knows what the story was actually about! I remember a lot of running and near misses, much like a sci-fi fantasy thriller. It is not any of the following: Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series: A Memory of Light, Maximum Ride, William Gibson's The Bridge Trilogy, Farmer's House of the Scorpion, Shadow of the Scorpion, Ender's Game, or Transall Saga). The best bet would be if anyone recognizes the cover art description. Help? Been eating away at my brain for 20 years now!
reply
|
flag
Mod
Yes! Still haven't tracked it down. Any ideas? My brother read it in 1996 from his high school library, but doesn't remember what the title was.
Mod
Victorie - I have searched for this book on the web (on/off whenever I'd remember) for well over 15 years now and this is the *first* time I've stumbled across someone else describing it; I am almost positive we're thinking of the same novel.What stuck to me most is indeed the cover art (hardcover, art on jacket sleeve). It was that classic 80s neon grid landscape, though I don't remember much else about it (but I do know there was more than just a grid so I'm inclined to believe your additional description).
I remember little to nothing from the story, but again your description is fitting and rounds out how I felt about it (more than any other descriptions I've read online). I do remember the boy would have daydreams or visions of what he's going through but others wouldn't see or know about them. And I even think one of them was when he was daydreaming while in class (I seem to recall something about a metal car or some sort of creature - maybe the scorpion - floating outside his classroom window). That's about all I remember from any specific scene. It definitely did feel like a psychological thriller.
When the film "Drive" (2011) was released, the fact that Gosling's character had a scorpion on his jacket and the film was so 80s neon inspired - both reminded me of this book again because I am *sure* there was indeed something involving a scorpion creature (or metal scorpion creature)? It was a bizarre story and I don't think my early-to-mid 90s elementary school brain processed it correctly (as you said too), but it did definitely stay with me enough to wonder so many years later what it was.
It is most definitely not a popular book by a well known author; it was literally one of those random "just interesting looking at the time" library picks which I returned and didn't think much of until much, much later...and I've never been able to track it down since.
I so hope we both find it again!
https://www.librarything.com/work/778...The night of the scorpion by Anthony Horowitz?
Haven't read yet but was reminded of the cover, not sure if a match though. Several covers on link.
http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookD...
Pacer 1984 hardcover edition according to abebooks.com.
This definitely matches Victorie's description of the cover; but I don't recall the cover of what I'm thinking of being so focused on the rock/kid and the sky. What I'm thinking of had a darker, more ominous cover, and it focused a lot more on the grid than on anything else. (e.g. something like this - https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/...)Though I won't know for certain until I re-read it so I'm not taking any chances. I'll order this to see if this is indeed the one (would be amazing if it is).
Thank you Bookel!
(And if anybody else thinks I may be thinking of something else, please let me know!)
Perhaps the grid is on the back cover too?
The Night of the Scorpion - Page 14 - Google Books ResultAnthony Horowitz - 1985 - Juvenile Fiction
Slowly, he turned his head towards the window. That was when the horror began. He saw a lorry, floating through the air, making no sound. There was no driver behind the wheel. Like a great beast it soared towards ...
Nora, look on Google Books for excerpts. That appears to be the floating object outside the window you described. Just search keywords within snippet view editions.
Actually you can read the scene here.
https://books.google.com.au/books?id=...
Ahh, that's it then - that's definitely it! I just remembered the cover differently (or maybe I just mixed it up with some other "grid landscape" design out there since that was a pretty popular 80s neon design - it was also used on Gibson's "Neuromancer").But that is definitely the description! So weird that that stuck with me all these years. I was starting to think I'd made that moment up, ha!
A thousand thanks Bookel, you're the best! Man, I hope Victorie reads this string soon too...
Hooray! :-D
I've got the Magnet paperback edition. The cover intrigued me when I saw it in a school library a few years ago. So it's one of the books I have yet to read. Glad I could help.
Mod
Yeah Victorie, hope you come back to this string soon (if you haven't already found it elsewhere). I'm certain Bookel found what you've been looking for too.I'm still so happy about this find the morning after. I can't wait to re-read it after all these years.
Nora wrote: "Victorie - I have searched for this book on the web (on/off whenever I'd remember) for well over 15 years now and this is the *first* time I've stumbled across someone else describing it; I am almo..."Wow you guys!!! After over two years on here you found it!!! And Nora thank you for making me not feel like I was crazy! Lol! I agree with you, the cover was far more focused on the grid, and he was on the edge of a chasm maybe? But I'll be real surprised if I read this again and it's not the book I was looking for. It's so funny it's Horowitz, because I kept thinking his Alex Rider hero was so similar! It also makes sense that we don't remember much since it's the 2nd in a series and it sounds like we both might have borrowed the book from an older sibling. You guys are amazing! Thanks for emailing me Bookel! I gave up on this thread a longtime ago (although I was looking through all the shelves of the Hastings Bookstores that were closing this month.
It could be an edition not pictured online if a different cover. Glad that's the one. People don't give up, some of my own queries took five plus years for me to solve myself.
I agree! Now I have new obsession: find the right jacket art! Of course the climax battle is so epic, Nora and I could both be just remembering that. But I do recall a more Tron feel to the cover,
Wow, see so I'm not the only one who thinks the cover was different! Haha! I am positive this is the book you're referring to - and now I'm suspecting there is indeed another version of the cover art we're not seeing online. Victorie - if you find it, please comment here and let me know (I will do the same). Maybe I'm just thinking of the back cover of this one, but I have a feeling there is indeed another edition.Regardless, hooray for us both and cheers again to Bookel!
Look up worldcat.org, look up editions online to determine if hardcover or paperback, find covers. If there's a hc with no cover, ensure it is what you're after by asking the seller for a cover scan before buying.
Also, Nora, your suggested picture of what the cover looks like was much closer to my memory. It's that grid and he's standing in the middle of the desert as a chasm is opening up. Is that what you remember?
I don't clearly remember the boy at all; I do remember the cover focused a lot more (straight angle, head on) on the "Tron"-like grid, and that it looked much more ominous/sinister than the one I'm seeing here. I know there were other objects on there too (and a chasm definitely sounds correct) but it's real fuzzy. I don't clearly recall a boy at all on the cover though. I'm really wondering if maybe I had focused a lot on the back cover instead of the front for some weird reason - ha! Would be extra super neat if we found what we're remembering, maybe it was some sort of special/limited edition print? Now that I know the title/author I'm definitely going to look for it anytime I step into any used bookstore, hehe.
Well if you do get the one pictured overlooking the grid, let us know if the back cover is interesting or not ... abebooks or bookfinder.com are good places to search, as are ebay, for secondhand copies.
Man. Such an overdue comment to close this one out, but I guess that's what happens in self-isolation when you've got time again to dig into smaller life questions and investigate. I found that alternate cover we were thinking of! Can't seem to find a shot of the back cover, but almost certain it's just more grid, haha.https://i.imgur.com/8qSUSJ3.jpg
D'oh wait, re-visiting this string more closely, it looks like we'd already found that edition, we were just looking for the back cover to confirm if it was more grid design, ha! I guess this string *was* mostly closed out already. Okay pretty sure I'm talking to myself. I'll stop now. (I only came back to this string cause I was searching for another set of YA murder-mystery novels I used to read back in the day...). Nostalgia is a comfort these days, lol!
