The three short novels in this collection, The Scorpion God, show Golding at his playful, ironic and mysterious best. In 'The Scorpion God' we see the world of ancient Egypt at the time of the earliest Pharaohs. 'Clonk Clonk' is a graphic account of a crippled youth's triumph over his tormentors in a primitive matriarchal society. And 'Envoy Extraordinary' is a tale of Imperial Rome where the emperor loves his illegitimate grandson more than his own arrogant, loutish heir.