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Wednesday, January 17, 2018

Book Review: Thunderhead (Arc of Scythe Book 2)

Thunderhead (Arc of a Scythe #2)Thunderhead by Neal Shusterman

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This book was hard to put down. I am slowly rereading each chapter to carefully track the changes in the plot and connect gaps that were left open in book 1. There was still no clear explanation on Scythe Faraday faking his death but, from his travels and trajectory in book 2, he sure will play a big role in book three.

In this second book of the series, Shusterman lets us in into the mindscape and emotions of the Thunderhead. Considering that the Thunderhead is a computer program, an Artificial Intelligence, it remains a product of humanity. It is an amalgamation of man's greatest dreams and worst achievements. Therefore, it knows the human heart so well and given its all seeing eye, cameras and bots all around, it can meddle with their affairs. Then again, it does not entirely do so.

As the utopian world where the Thunderhead exist as god unravels, it makes use of people it can trust and who, based on a mathematical computation and algorithm, can save the world from destruction. From what we learn in history, the downfall of one world takes time. Empires are not built in a day and so its. Book three will be a difficult read and I will be at the edge of my seat hoping for the heroes to rise and save the day.

Thunderhead retains everything I love in book 1: the irreverence, the humor, the murders that are cushioned with moral explanations and philosophical ruminations and the love story. The ending tore me apart and the only consolation I had at the closing chapter was the idea of how romantic it is to die for and with the one you love.



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