The Scorpio Races, for me, was a great read, but fell a little short of my expectations. For starters, it was extremely slow. I had a really hard time in the beginning to stay interested in the story, let alone press forward with it. I'd say it was only around midway when things finally got interesting and I finally was able to fly through the pages. 
 The premise was amazing. Killer water horses! I did have a little trouble about the world, Thisby, where the novel was set in. It was like, there were details for some stuff, but there wasn't enough for others. Details were rather vague and half the time, I was just wondering which time frame they were in. I suppose clues might have been dropped throughout the novel but I mustn't have been paying attention. 
 The writing, however, was terrific! It was evocative, powerful and through her writing, Maggie shows us how brutal the races are, how powerful and cruel the water horses can be. I was a little sad that the actual race was written and done in a few pages. I mean, the set up for it was so long, I wished the races could have gone on for much longer. The wrap-up happened too quickly as well, so I wished that could have been done better. 
 The characters were very engaging as well. They both have reasons for competing and while it took a while for them to even meet, let alone start a friendship, I was very pleased with the progress. I was glad it was love at first sight or whatever. If anything, romance is very understated in this novel, definitely taking a backseat here. 
 Won't be spoiling anything but the villain is a real piece of work. He's cruel, mean and I can't even describe his actions. >.< 
 Still, The Scorpio Races was a great read and I can't wait to read more of Maggie's books. :)