Cover image of "Scorpion," a novel built around future technology

When I read a techno-thriller, I expect a clever plot built around some whiz-bang technology. The device or process in question might either be currently operational or a reasonable projection into the near future. Runaway AI, for example. Genetic engineering, maybe. Or nanotechnology. The possibilities are effectively endless. But to deliver a suspenseful and powerful story, a novel that trafficks in such material needs to be simple enough for the reader to follow the action from beginning to end. What does not work is what author Christian Cantrell offers up in his overstuffed techno-thriller, Scorpion. The book defies common sense by attempting (without success) to weave together three separate plots, each built around a novel implementation of future technology. The result is a garbled and confusing story that ultimately fails to satisfy.

Three confusing and conflicting plots

Three intersecting storylines, any one of which might have worked well, are baffling in combination. A gifted young particle physicist discovers an encrypted message in the backlog of data generated by the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. A mysterious international serial killer is murdering people, seemingly at random, and carving unique four-digit numbers into their bodies. Each of his victims is younger than the last one, the final victim an infant. And a brilliant CIA analyst pursues the killer, repeatedly stumbling along the way. Then—to introduce what promises to be a fourth plot—she is reassigned to join a shadowy senior CIA officer in a top-secret code-named project. Cantrell implies that these plots converge in the closing pages of the novel. But I couldn’t figure out how they did, or what it might have meant,

Scorpion by Christian Cantrell (2021) 336 pages ★★★☆☆

Photo of the Doha skyline, site of much of the action in this novel about future technology
The harbor at Doha, Qatar, where much of the action in this novel takes place. Image: Finnair

An overall assessment

Cantrell writes lively prose, and he clearly has a handle on at least some of the technology about which he writes. His characters are all interesting if improbably skillful. Had he kept things simpler, Scorpion might have been a terrific book. Unfortunately, the result is unsatisfactory. I can’t recommend this novel.

About the author

Photo of Christian Cantrell, author of this novel about future technology
Christian Cantrell. Image: Can’t Sell This

Amazon notes that “Christian Cantrell is a writer and software developer working at the intersection of generative AI and creativity. He lives in LA.” Scorpion is his third novel.

As Cantrell writes on his author website, “Just as stories unlock the potential of products, technology unlocks the types of stories I like to tell. I don’t write near-future thrillers and science fiction to indulge in futurism; I explore science and technology that don’t yet exist in order to put characters in situations in which they can discover things about themselves that would otherwise have been impossible.”

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