The Scorpion God

As always, beautiful, precise, prose, a sense of humor, touches of eroticism, a sense of the magic and poetry of the historical condition of humankind! Entertaining, cerebral, thought-provoking.

I am a fan of William Golding and I appreciate his attempts to illuminate the subject of prehistoric humans. Unfortunately, the three novellas included in this collection were very difficult for me to read, especially without context.As I read the stories, I was frustrated with the lack of detail and context. Although I could place the characters and their actions, the stories dragged tremendously. After I read quiet a few reviews, I feel that I better understand the point of the stories. Nevertheless, the felt like a chore to read, especially compared to some of Golding's other works.

Golding displays his skills once again with three novellas, each set in a different historical period and place and featuring characters who think and act far differently than moderns, yet who remain recognizably human throughout. Readers of other Golding books will recognize his customary tension and humor.

Three short stories set in ancient Egypt,Rome and stoneage times all exploring mans ambivilent relatoinship with nature;the rational and reasoning of man always being repressed by our over weening need for rituals and superstitious explanations. Each tale needs to be read in one sitting for the whole effect to hit;Golding is not the sort of writer where you can read a couple of pages then go back to later. His writing has a cumulative effect, and his anthropological observations are acute. My particular favourite was 'Clonk Clonk' as it was very much in the vein of (to me) his greatest work,'The Inheritors'.

Not quite three short novels, but three long stories - "The Scorpion God", set in ancient Egypt; "Clonk Clonk", set in Africa somewhere around the Dawn of Man; and "Envoy Extraordinary", set during the late Roman Empire. All are distinguished by Golding's glorious if occasionally difficult style - it's sometimes hard to discern precisely what is going on, but that's because the author is trying to project you into the consciousness of people who are fundamentally different from you - pre-Christian, pre-industrial, pre-rational and in one case prehistoric. All three stories deal with the emergence of new forms of consciousness and hence, new forms of society - in the first, we see the vague beginnings of the Pharaohs; in the second, perhaps, the beginning of the sex war; in the third (in many ways the least difficult of the three) the brilliantly ironic fate of a few ideas which were centuries, not years, before their time. In "Envoy Extraordinary" only - the story set closest to modern times - the attempted change of consciousness does not succeed, is deliberately repressed - or rather, removed until later. There's a real sting in this tale, just as logical, just as inevitable and far less predictable than the ending of Golding's excellent Pincher Martin; the barbs in "Clonk Clonk" and "The Scorpion God" are a bit more subtle and may take longer to sink in, but you'll feel them all right.

Being an historian, I find the conventional historical novel almost impossible to read because, while the material culture may be most thoroughly researched, the unavoidable anachronisms in the way people think or their values tend to grate. But Golding deals with the remote past, about which often less is known, so there is more room for an imaginative sideways glance. The Scorpion God is set in ancient Egypt before it became one country, and deals with a kinglet whose powers are waning and who must therefore die - something he seems quite to look forward to - accompanied in death by his favourite servants. One of these does not want to go, and manages to create a new way of thinking. Clonk Clonk is set in the prehistoric era, envisioning a society where men, the hunters, display the qualities routinely associated with (silly) women, while the women of the tribe manage all else with wisdom. Envoy Extraordinary was quite fun but the theme is a bit like Kipling's The Eye of Allah - only humorous, not serious. The ideas are interesting and intelligent. The writing is economical, atmospheric and lucid. Can I also put in a word for Golding's The Inheritors? Also set in prehistory, it has a twist at the end which flips the whole meaning of the story on its head, and which gave me furiously to think. Interestingly, it foreshadows recent research findings/interpretations.

I am gradually working my way through the books of William Golding in between others and this is a typical Golding

Fascinating and thought provoking but not an easy read. I liked the Envoy Extraordinary the best though Scorpion god was interesting