I haven’t read a Marco Kloos book since 2022. It’s not that he’s not a good writer, it’s just that I hadn’t seen any books by him for a while, but now l have and I’m glad I got this one read. I believe I found this in a video review or mention by Youtuber Burn Enough. If you haven’t seen his channel, I recommend you do. He covers a lot of books in a short, concise video that gives me a lot books to put on my reading list.
But, back to “Scorpio”. This is a very interesting and exciting book that kind of follows along the lines of what you expect to happen next, does. We are on the planet Scorpio, but it’s been invaded and taken over by the “Lankies”. Now if you’ve read any of Mr. Kloos books in the past, you’ll know about the Lankies. They are something like twenty-feet giants that stomp around on planets killing everything that isn’t them without much reason. I don’t believe humanity has found a way to communicate with the Lankies, but we do know that Lankies are hard to kill and they have completely invaded and taken over numerous human colonies.
One such colony is 18 Scorpio where a young lady, Alexandra (Alex) Archer, has lived for most of her now twenty-one years. Right after Alex and her parents immigrated to Scorpio and had set up a life for the family, the Lankies attacked. The killed most all the military defenders and then started killing all the remaining colonist. There weren’t very many to begin with so it didn’t take long. Among those killed were Alex’s parents. She had fled to the closest Operations bunker which had been built in a massive cave system in a mountain region close to the colonies space port. That all happened eight year ago. Alex has grown into a young woman and has developed some deep friendships with all the other one-hundred and fifty colonist that survived the Lankies attack and now occupation.
This stronghold they call “The Vault” has remained hidden for all of these eight years and so far they have been safe enough to start growing their own food mostly from soy. Her life and those within the Vault is one of repetition since there’s really only so much you can do in a gigantic cave. Yet, no one is really complaining. And they have been sending out salvage parties to obtain anything of use to the remaining colonist. Recently, those salvage excursions have been getting longer. The close-in salvage sites have been picked over so they’ve had to go out further and stay out longer. This is where Alex comes in to her primary job.
Alex is a dog handler. She’s been trained by the small military contingent remaining in the Vault. They have one Sergeant, a few Corporals and a few more Privates and that’s about all that’s left of the Earth Defense Forces on Scorpio. But they have found out that the two dogs, Ash and Blitz have the ability to alert to the presence of Lankies anywhere near them. So, Alex has been accompanying the troops in their armored mule (personnel carrier) when they go out salvaging. She’s not in the military, but that’s Ok with the troops she goes with since they know she and Ash are there to protect them.
Alex and Ash are now out on a fairly long salvage mission further away than has been done. On the way, they did stop long enough to send up a drone which did show some Lankies walking parallel to their tack going in the opposite direction. So, they hunkered down until they passed. It also helped that it had been constantly raining where they were at so it was hard to see anything even with their radar and other sensors. They assumed it was just as hard for the Lankies to see them especially if they stayed still and kept small. So hiding was their best defense or running away as fast as possible if necessary.
They do get to this latest salvage site and the civilian techs plus the Deputy Colony Administrator goes down into the bunker to see if they can find anything of value. Alex and Ash are stationed on guard at the entrance to the bunker entrance and will be using light signals to notify if any Lankies show up. The military guys don’t like their position since they are parked with only one way out. They have the mule with them plush a large cargo carrier which the Deputy Administrator and the Technicians rode in. It also has all the storage required for any salvage they find.
Now is when you’re going to see how these people handle the Lankies. They really don’t have the weapons to fight off a large gathering of Lankies and the Lankies usual attack method is to just stomp everything they see. Alex and Ash work very well together even though they both have to wear oxygen masks while outside the mule. The Lankies are terraforming the planet to meet their requirements and what was once a breathable atmosphere has turned deadly for humans and dogs alike!
So, Alex and Ash and the rest of the salvage part have to make it back to the Vault. They have to do so without alerting the Lankies and they have to bring back valuable supplies. They’ve been doing this for eight years, but really, how much longer do they think they can keep this up. They have not heard from Earth in all those past eight years. Maybe the Lankies have already invaded and destroyed Earth and they are the only remaining humans. Alex doesn’t hope so, but this is her life now and really the only life she has know. But, what if all that changed?
I’m definitely reading book 2, “Corvus”, now available on Amazon.
==[Note 1 (12/23/2025): I’m no longer associated with Amazon and will no longer provide any links to books from that website. You can usually find books that you like at your usual source.]==
==[Note 2: As of 12/03/2023, this will not be posted on Amazon since I have been banned from posting reviews for some unknown reason. ]==