City News
Scythe by Neal Shusterman
Reviewed by Shaan
Scythe, a dystopian thriller, sets a very dark futuristic world. Humanity has conquered everything, even death. However, scythes, an elite group of killers, “glean” (a glorified word for kill) people to keep the population under control. These scythes name themselves after a famous person from the past. The general government, the Thunderhead, benevolently rules the people. However, the scythes rule themselves, making it easy for the Scythedom to become corrupt. In the novel, we follow two scythe’s apprentices, Citra and Rowan. Both apprentices follow their mentor, Scythe Michael Faraday. One of the older and wiser scythes, he mentors them in the ways of an honorable scythe. However, not every scythe follows Scythe Faraday’s honor code. Some people enjoy taking life without the compassion and honor normally associated with a scythe. However, taking on both apprentices has put the three of them in great danger. A dangerous force threatens to take over the scythedom, and Citra and Rowan have to survive the coup. Who will emerge ruler of the scythedom, and who will fall prey to the scythes?
This book would cleverly show portions of discussions, leaving the reader with just enough information to intrigue themselves, but not enough to deduce what will happen in the next part of the book. Writing the novel in third person gave the author the flexibility to change perspectives and show how the individual parts of the story fit together. Between chapters of the book, we see ecxerpts from scythes’ journals. Scythes write about their lives in their journals with musings and recollections. Between chapters, the book has an excerpt from an iconic scythes journal, and in some way, it pertains to the events of the previous chapter. Some excerpts, philosophical musings of various scythes, make readers contemplate the pros and cons of the way the dystopia functions. Others, excerpts from one of the main characters’ journals, also add a level of depth as to what the character thinks about and why they act the way they do. These seem random at first, but they pertain to the story at large. Also, the author created the entirety of the fictional world in an artful way. Even somewhat random Tone cults, the closest thing to religion, create a strange but meaningful message to the scythes.
I rank this book as one of my top ten favorite books of all time. I really like how it has a very different storyline and concept from most distopias. I also loved how the book switched perspectives to show a full picture of the story. The storyline at first confused me, but the author very quickly described it and enraptured the reader into the book. I thought that this book gave a really interesting perspective of how society would function if artificial intelligence ruled us. Also, it had complex language and relatable characters, making it a good read.
I would rate this book a 10/10. I found no flaws in the novel. Also, because starts a trilogy, the story continued seamlessly into the second novel. This novel and series got me thinking about possible implications for the future. I thought about all different forms of governments, from anarchies and tyrannies to republics and democracies. Would an artificial intelligence rule the world better than a human, or would that cause a situation like in Terminator, or Age of Ultron? This book covered a lot of interesting concepts, opening up my mind to really interesting ideas.