Arc of a Scythe Series

Author: 

Neal Shusterman

  • Themes: Coming of Age; Change vs Tradition; Death
  • Genre: Science Fiction

Recommended age for Reading: 

The reading level is 6.5 which is about where the content level should be.  There's mild language throughout the story and there are parts with strong language, but not many.  Both books get a bit dark since death is a central theme to the story.  There's also a few violent scenes. 



Scythe Plot:

In this particular futuristic society, humans have conquered natural as well as accidental death.  People no longer die from illness or disease and if a tragic accident occurs, they can be taken to the nearest hospital for a resurrection.  This seems ideal, but colonizing other planets hasn't happened yet, so planet Earth can only sustain so much life.  As a result of this, an occupation some can aspire to is that of a scythe.  A scythe's main role is to end life at random in order to keep the world population at a reasonable number.  Once a scythe has acted, that person's life is over and cannot be resurrected.  The main characters are appointed to apprentice a well respected scythe.  One of the conflicts in the story is that only one of the apprentices will receive the honor of scythe-hood.


Thunderhead Plot: 

This is the sequel to Scythe.  I'm not going to go into a detailed summary because I don't want to give any spoilers away for Scythe.  This story continues to follow the journeys of the two main characters in the first book, but goes into more detail of what the Thunderhead is and how it operates.  The Thunderhead is an artificial intelligence created by humans, but is now charged with leading all of humanity.  It has control over all things except the scythe-hood.  

Review:

At first I wasn't quite sure what to think of the series.  I usually avoid stories with dark themes such as these stories, but the message and the themes of the books are very powerful.  I look forward to reading the next book.  I wish it were already out because Thunderhead left me hanging.  

Rating: 5/5  

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