Book Review: Scion by James Islington
ARC provided by the publisher—Gollancz—in exchange for an honest review.
Cover art illustrated by Yohei Horishita
Scion by James Islington
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Series: Scion (Book #1)
Genre: Science Fiction, Cyberpunk
Pages: 240 pages (Ebook Edition)
Word Count: 56,000 Words
Published: 1st September 2026 by Saga Press (US) and Gollancz (UK)
Scion is a fast-paced and action-packed cyberpunk novel about freedom, justice, and identity.
It doesn’t matter what the genre is; if James Islington is writing it, I’m reading it. That’s the simple formula. I was excited by the prospect of Scion since I learned about it last year. If you have read The Licanius trilogy or The Hierarchy series, then you should know science fiction elements undeniably exist in all of Islington’s books. Because of that and how much I love all five books from him I have read to date, I have always been curious to see Islington’s take on a huge-scope science fiction or space opera novel/series. Now, Scion isn’t that epic science fiction I wanted. But this is not a bad thing. It is more rooted in cyberpunk and thriller. And for the page-turning, fast-paced reading experience it seeks to achieve, I’ll conclude the narrative—eventually—did its job wonderfully.
Initially, when I was reading the first quarter of Scion, I felt a bit apprehensive about the quality of the storytelling. To give a bit of context… Last year, All That We See or Seem by Ken Liu, one of my favorite authors of all time, was published. Although the book isn’t a negative experience, I maintain my point that I wouldn’t be able to tell the book is written by Ken Liu if I didn’t know his name is attached to it. The writing style felt so different compared to The Dandelion Dynasty or his collection of short stories. Scion, for a while, felt that way. For such a short novel, it took its time to find its strong footing. But once we hit the 35% mark, I managed to read the rest of the novel in one sitting.
“I feel everything and it aches in my chest, and it is wonderful. Ten minutes, is all it lasts for. Ten minutes of humanity. Ten minutes of genuinely feeling like I know I’m supposed to feel, like what everyone else says they feel. Ten minutes of shame and anger and sorrow and confusion and real connection with the rest of the world. And then it wears off. Fades, an almost physical sensation. The lack of caring returns. I am, once again, completely fine. And I wipe a few tears from my eyes, and take a breath, and tap the q-com back on.”
I assume most readers will approach and read this after loving the hell out of The Hierarchy series. This is good. However, it is absolutely crucial to remind yourself that this is vastly different in tone and execution from The Hierarchy series. The only similarity the book has is that it is written in a first-person present-tense narration as well. That’s it. Plus, as I said, Scion is a short novel. At roughly 200 pages and 56,000 words long, Scion is not designed to have a huge sprawling and intricate world-building. The main story is centered on Azure and his mission. It is much more straightforward and meant to be a quick read. Islington wrote Scion during his downtime from writing the insane complexity and ambitious narrative in The Hierarchy series. It will benefit readers to open the pages of Scion with the correct expectations. Although not exactly similar, judging from the voice, tone, and themes available in Scion, the later books in The Murderbot Diaries series by Martha Wells—in my opinion—are the closest comparison.
“Kind of seems like the question here is whether you want to try and live in peace, or be at peace. One of them’s probably going to be a hell of a lot harder than the other, though.”
To wrap-up this review, rather than recommending Scion to fans of The Licanius trilogy or The Hierarchy series, I believe it is more proper to recommend this short novel to fans of cyberpunk, thriller, or The Murderbot Diaries. Scion is the first installment in a series. It has heart. The action scenes were fun. I had a great time reading it, and I look forward to reading the sequel when it is ready. Similar to how Islington wrote the book during his downtime, Scion works incredibly well as a palate cleanser and lighter read amidst my usual heavy fantasy doorstopper reading. Do not expect something on the scope of The Licanius trilogy and The Hierarchy series. Azure’s story will pleasantly surprise you.
You can pre-order this book from: Amazon | Blackwells (Free International shipping)
The quotes in this review were taken from an ARC and are subject to change upon publication.
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