Scythe is a novel set in a far flung future, on a blurry line between a dystopian society, and Utopian one, where humanity has conquered war, death and sickness, creating a unique background for the story, and posing a question. If nobody can die, how can the ecosystem continue to support everyone's lives? This creates the primary conflict, plot and world of the story, where a free standing group of individuals, above legislation, and any form of governance are appointed to “glean” or kill anyone they deem necessary, only impeded by a “quota”to keep them in check. This sets the stage for our protagonists, two 16 year old teens living in Mid Merica, a futuristic adaptation of the central United states. These seemingly ordinary people's lives are torn apart after they cross paths with a Scythe, using their immense willpower and inner compass to challenge the mysterious figure and his methods, defending their family, or comforting a schoolboy as he takes his last breath. This catches the eye of the figure, and he decides to recruit these unlikely heroes, stating that loathing even the thought of becoming a Scythe “ is the first requirement” for the job, creating a ingenious feeling of irony as the antagonists surface when an elegy, or a group of Scythes gleans an entire airplane of people, loving every second of it in the process. This introduces the politics and inner workings of the Scythedom, where two groups fight for control, one of them trying to remove the gleaning quota, and another one trying to defend it.
I still remember the day I first read this book, the thoughts that moved through my head then, and the feeling of which the book felt like it wasn’t just an object, but an entire world in the palm of your hands. Everything about this book felt timed and perfected, the between chapter snippets, providing additional information about the world without taking away from the main plot, like the loading screens of a videogame, or the background set pieces of a movie. This alone would have given this book a perfect review, but there was one more thing that stunned me to the core, the themes. The authors expertly crafted themes coming of age, morality and death and most importantly, the theme of ethics keep you always on edge, and whenever you think you’ve figured out the story, another mind bending detail is introduced, keeping you thinking through each and every page.
In conclusion, Scythe is an almost perfect book, where the author clearly knows exactly what he is doing, every part of the world falls into place like a perfectly cut puzzle, and the characters have just the perfect amount of depth to them to maintain an emphasis on the plot. If you love science fiction, dystopia, and mind bending reads, I could not recommend this book enough.
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