Scythe by Neal ShustermanMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
My review of Scythe
Definetly a series that I will watch out for till the last book. One of my best reads of 2017.
Philosophical. Funny. Utterly human!
What worked
As a first book in the series, its duty is to build a believable utopian world and characters to inhabit that universe. In this age and time where death and disease have all been eradicated, I find myself looking for grounding so I could suspend my disbelief. Shusterman succeeds to some extent by pulling up the sci-fi card.
Thanks to science and technoligy, immortality has been achieved. The fountain of youth is no longer the stuff of legend and the elixir of life can be accessed and availed in a revival center. The world is controlled, managed and sustained by the Thunderhead, an AI that supplanted the Cloud as well as corruptible man made institutions. Gone are the imperfect political systems of the world except for the Scythedom composed of Scythes, gleaners of the human race. They are the grim reapers and people who populate Shusterman’s world regard them as honorable and frightful beings licensed to take lives and to bring an end to one’s immortality.
And there lies the conflict. Scythes are humans too and they are fallible. While many of them live up to the morals of gleaning, and its agonies, many abuse this power.
It is here in this world and in this problem where teenagers Citra and Rowan found themselves in. Both became scythes at the end of Book 1. The former was ordained by the Scythedom but the later became a vigilante. It is their story arcs that had me hook, line and sinker.
What did not work
One of my favorite characters in the book faked his death and it was not explained how. There are more loop holes and gaps in the plot. I had to put them aside to join in Citra’s and Rowan’s journey.
Definitely, I am expecting an answer to my questions in Book 2!
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