The House of the Scorpion
by Nancy Farmer · first published 2002
5mentions
3recommended by
5HN commenters
2017–2026first – last mentioned
60% recommend40% neutral
The story takes place in the country of Opium, a strip of land between Mexico (now called Aztlán), and the United States. Opium, which is essentially an opium-producing estate, is ruled by Matteo Alacrán, also known as El Patrón. El Patrón's work-force consists of illegal immigrants whom the Farm Patrol (ex-criminals who are tempted with the offer of protection from the police) enslave when they catch them crossing the border in either direction. These illegal immigrants become "eejits", humans with computer chips implanted in their brains, making them more or less zombies who can perform only
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…been a voracious reader, especially of nonfiction. While I absorbed a lot of knowledge, I can't really remember any actual stories that I have read in my lifetime save for one. Some young adult book, House of the Scorpion, published in 2002 that was required reading for one of my kids so I read it to help them with their book report. For some reason, that book just resonated with me and it's still my favorite.
on “Nancy Pearl’s Rule of 50 for dropping a bad book” ↗I enjoyed The House of the Scorpion https://www.amazon.co.uk/House-Scorpion-Nancy-Farmer-ebook/d... You can find award winning books of different genre in the database of award winning children's books: http://www.dawcl.com/ You can…
on “Ask HN: Sci-Fi book recommendations for kids?” ↗I enjoyed reading a Young Adult Sci-Fi novel with this premise called The House of the Scorpion[0]. The main character is a clone who's owner is a powerful enough drug lord to get away with not having his organ clones' brains crippled at birth like all the others are. [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_House_of_the_Scorpion
on “The stealthy startup that pitched brainless human clones” ↗The book The House of the Scorpion has, as part of its premise, some ultra-rich drug lords who raise clones for organ replacements. (Seems like the right combination of rich and unscrupulous.) Most of those clones are injected with something…
on “Human reproductive cloning: The curious incident of the dog in the night-time” ↗I was reminded of The House of the Scorpion, which seems to have similar themes to Orphan Black. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_House_of_the_Scorpion
on “Blood from young animals can revitalise old ones” ↗