Scion by James Islington (book review)
‘Scion’ by James Islington is standalone Science Fiction thriller.
Azure is an enhanced human with revs, cogs and somatics, one of the very few people on the planet whose body can accept and use these adaptations. He cannot have them switched on all the time as they are exhausting. So he is careful to ration their use to when they are needed. Which is usually when, on hire from the Keres corporation, he is assassinating a lifer for a crowdfunded contract. Perfectly legal under the Ten-O-Ten amendment was voted in to proscribe people who take the Ichor to live forever and they use up to many resources.
He also needs the tokens to pay back Keres for bringing him back from the brink of death four years previously when a guarding job went horribly wrong. He survived. His client turned friend, Landry, did not. Azure wants answers as to what went wrong then. That is why he is extremely reluctant to accept any jobs that are guarding a person from attack.
But one job comes along with a lot of tokens for two weeks security work. Keres insists he takes it. Besides, it will give him time to fully recover from his injuries on his last assassination job. Also, the client did ask for him personally.
His client turns out to be a little old lady who is rich in tokens beyond measure. She lives on a vast estate with loads and loads of security measures, including biosecurity. This means snakes, panthers, owls and Richard the giant lion who follow her orders. There is a lovely little scene where said little old lady makes Richard lie down like a little pussy cat. Yes, all bio-engineered. Trouble is someone is trying to kill her. They keep on trying. Azure has to keep on protecting her.
The little old lady turns out to be Jasa de Alwes, the geneticist who came up with the Ichor, biosecurity and who officially died nearly fifteen years previously. Azure wants to walk away from the job and forfeit the fee. Jasa dangles the promise of a data file about what really happened on the Landry job if he keeps her alive for two weeks. Azure cannot resist taking up the offer.
Throughout all the action and mayhem that follows, Azure continues to portray his dry sense of humour. For example, ‘Well that was awful,’ I mutter to myself, perching on the dead Argos while the gel sets and gazing over the half-wrecked garden.’ But we come to know this Murderbot-like humour hides something else, something he has to keep under control.
This novel is action-packed. Hardly a page goes by without tension or fighting of some sort and there are very many sorts throughout ‘Scion’. If it is the thrills and spills you want, this is definitely a good novel to read.
I found a lot of the major secondary characters clichéd personalities. The kind-hearted, but sensible owner of the drug den, Verity, is a case in point.
As for the overarching plot, the world-building towards the start of novel offers an awful lot of pointers of the likely story arc. When you have powerful leading characters, no matter what their speciality, you know their problems are with the other powerful entities described towards the start of the story. When there are so few such entities, the plot becomes far too obvious too early.
One technical issue I had was the EMP (Electro-Magnetic Pulse) rings that Azure walks through and the biosecurity run wild in. For them to be effective, the pulses have to be strong. They have a detrimental effect on humans and animals alike, yet this was not mentioned or used. It would have made a difference to the sub-plots, though not to the overall story.
Overall, ‘Scion’ is a fun, humorous, light-hearted thriller of a Science Fiction novel. What I call a cosy Sunday afternoon read.
Rosie Oliver
July 2026
(pub: Gollancz, 2026. 226 page hardback. Price: £22.00 (UK). ISBN: 978-1-39964-186-9)
check out website: https://store.gollancz.co.uk/products/scion