Scorpia Rising

Scorpia Rising

First edition cover Scorpia Rising cover
Author	Anthony Horowitz
Language	English
Series	Alex Rider series
Genre	Adventure, Spy novel
Publisher	Walker Books
Publication date	31 March 2011 (UK)
Publication place	United Kingdom
Preceded by	Crocodile tears

Scorpia Rising, the ninth novel in the Alex Rider series, came out in March 2011. In the book, Scorpia is hired to return the Elgin marbles to Greece. Their plan includes the laying of a false trail to Cairo, killing Alex, and blackmailing London into returning the Marbles. MI6 falls for the trap and Alex is sent to Cairo, where, unbeknownst to Alex, Scorpia is pulling the strings.

On BBC Radio 4 on 20 March 2010, Anthony Horowitz announced that the next book will be named 'Scorpia Rising'. The setting will be in Egypt. The criminal organization Scorpia will make an appearance with Zeljan Kurst being the main antagonist. Anthony Horowitz has revealed one scene where Alex becomes stuck in quicksand with Scorpia members surrounding him with machine guns.

It was revealed by Anthony Horowitz at the Hong Kong Book Fair that the British museum would be the first location for the book. He also revealed the tenth book, Yassen, will not directly involve Alex Rider, but talk about how Yassen became an assassin. He also mentioned that Alex would do something very bad intentionally in Scorpia Rising, which was released on the 31 of March in the U.K. Horowitz has written this in his blog:

SCORPIA RISING starts in the British Museum in London. Then it moves to a place called the Siwa Oasis in Egypt, in the middle of the Sahara desert, where we meet Khalid Aziz Al-Kazim who is without doubt the nastiest villain I’ve ever created. He worked for Saddam Hussein when he was fourteen. He graduated to Al Qaeda. Now he’s in business for himself. There are actually three villains in this book. One of them is what you might call an old friend – brought back by popular demand. The other is a teacher at an international school in Cairo which is where Alex is sent after an assassin in London tries to…but I mustn’t give too much away.

From Egypt we go to the River Seine in Paris where our old friends, Scorpia, are having a high-level meeting. Then we’re in Gibraltar. And finally – in Chapter 7 – we catch up with Alex in England. He’s fifteen in this book and you’ll see almost at once that everything has changed, particularly his relationship with Jack.

SCORPIA RISING has a very twisty plot with a lot of surprises, not all of them pleasant. A few more things… You will come across the Smithers’s last gadget and learn something about Smithers that you never knew before. You will see Alan Blunt in a completely new light. One character who has been in all eight previous books will die. The ending is fairly shocking. And when you get to the end you will be in no doubt at all that this is THE LAST ALEX RIDER BOOK EVER. (Well, I’m still going to write about Yassen and I do have one surprise up my sleeve, several years down the line – but this is the last in the series.) I’m really pleased with the way it’s turned out. I think it’s the best of the lot – perhaps the best book I’ve ever written.

Scorpia rising is about Razim trying to get the Elgin Marbles back to Greece.