Book Review (Canon): Scythe

Scythe

Written by Neal Shusterman in 2016

The Raccoon: After aging, disease, and political corruption are eradicated, overpopulation remains the one problem in an otherwise perfect society.  Population control is carried out by appointed “scythes,” who each “glean” (kill) several thousand people every year.  Unwillingly recruited by a scythe to be his apprentices, Citra Terranova and Rowan Damisch must wrestle with their morality and the question of whether any human-run institution can ever be perfect.

UNMASKED: Scythe takes place in a utopian futuristic vision of the United States.  Surprisingly, this made for a very difficult read. Having been conditioned by several dystopian stories, I was constantly skeptical of every feature of society that Shusterman introduced; it took reading half of the book before I could accept that there would not be any mysterious disappearances or a hidden dictator pulling the strings.

The lack of governmental corruption provides the perfect foundation for a strong individual to rise as a villain.  However, although the novel’s primary antagonist is mysterious and charismatic, his goal is barely justifiable.  Consequently, the villain’s character falls apart, leaving just a stereotypical bad person underneath.

Scythe daringly attempts to show the fate of humanity in a world losing touch with the interdependency and curiosity that created our culture.  While the novel describes compelling characters and unique concepts, the reader is left with an unchanged opinion on death and the disturbing claim that putting humans in power will never be a good idea.

Strengths:

• Shusterman uses popular, contemporary science, and the future he outlines seems very likely to occur.
• Every character has a different reaction to the presence of a scythe, making every moment special and intriguing.
• All of the action sequences create powerful imagery, many of them shocking to characters and the reader alike.
• The highly-advanced artificial intelligence does not suddenly try to take over the world or eliminate humanity.

Weaknesses:

• The main characters reach a point far too early on in the story when the reader understands their motivations and values completely and can predict their actions for the rest of the novel.
• Scythe presents an extremely pessimistic view of humanity as a whole.
• The prominent Tone Cult religion feels far-fetched and nonsensical, and no explanation is given regarding how other religions have fared in the aftermath of humans conquering death.

Rating: 16/20 philosophies

Ideal Setting: Read this when life seems to lose its spark.  Our culture of convenience has caused us to ignore and even forget the depth and importance of human emotion and expression.