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A review by kristins3
Scythe by Neal Shusterman
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
1.5
There were some interesting thoughts on morality in this book, but overall I just couldn't really suspend my disbelief enough to accept the premise. I just don't believe that people would accept the Scythes, especially when they do occasionally kill children and their methods of choice of up to the individual and thus not really transparent. Further, why would anyone think it was okay to give people violent and torturous ends as a method of population control? If people were going to accept a system like this, I think there would need to be some guarantee of lasting at least until a certain age and it would need to be systematic and minimally painful. It's not something like the Hunger Games, where one group clearly has all the resources and weaponry/army and that group is never in danger from the brutality so they may choose not to protest it (and even indulge in it). Everyone has a risk of being purged here, and the people doing the purging are usually working solo, so even if they have the primary weapons, sufficient people could definitely take them on. I understand people may come after them, but I think that would just start a chain of attacks on the scythes. They're not some sort of centralized army, and we've seen at one of their events that civilians/non-scythes are developing new and powerful weapons all the time. There's no way someone wouldn't raid one of those factories (potentially even working with people on the inside) and go after the scythes.
That said, I did find the last couple of chapters exciting and adventurous. Even if I didn't totally buy the premise of the surrounding society, I had an easier time accepting it when they were just dealing with the politics among the Scythes.
As others have said, the romance was really forced and made no sense. It felt like it was just added because that's what you put in a YA book.
It's funny the the "cloud evolved to the Thunderhead" when the Thunderhead is supposed to be AI which isn't really what cloud typically refers too. I really hated the cloud-based imagery surrounding the AI for that reason.
They established that people are dying at much lower rates from the scythes than they were from issues in mortal ages, but Faraday establishes that he tries to kill people from various demographics at similar rates to what their actual fatality rate would have been in the past, which makes no sense. Further, they also established that people are still having a lot of children, so I don't see how this solves the supposed population overgrowth problem. Only one person talks about it having anything to do with "stagnation," so this does not seem to be the main motivation. The population growth is explained away by "the Thunderhead takes care of it" but if they're really killing that few of people each year, it should practically be a rounding error in managing them.
Further, it does not make sense for public sentiment to turn away from space research if they are really out of space. First of all, there will always be adventurers willing to risk their lives for missions like that. Second, even if there weren't wouldn't people prefer to be given a shot at working on a space mission and possibly dying a catastrophic failure than just being killed by a scythe? You would need engineers to work on the missions, but I would think they would at least make an attempt with randomly selected passengers if they were really so intent on getting rid of people. Overall, the premise of this book was just something I couldn't accept - I think the scythes would have needed some sort of more extreme power or overwhelming numbers to prevent the population from rising up against them. When we were only dealing with scythes or scythe politics, it was easier to accept because there wasn't this overwhelming disparity that I just don't believe an entire world's population would stand for.
The book definitely got more interesting when they were being trained by people other than Faraday. Faraday's method may not have been as brutal or unfair as Goddard's, but it still made no sense. Killing people because they fit the profile of people that might have died in the past makes no sense. It's not some virtue to avoid certain actions when they no longer cause harm to yourself or anyone else. The reason those things need to be avoided is because people prioritize their own ease or entertainment over the safety of others, which is wrong.
I really liked the scene where Rowan took on Goddard and his crew. It was a brutal scene, but very well-written. I also liked when Citra was traveling in South America and how the politics among scythedoms played out.
That said, I did find the last couple of chapters exciting and adventurous. Even if I didn't totally buy the premise of the surrounding society, I had an easier time accepting it when they were just dealing with the politics among the Scythes.
As others have said, the romance was really forced and made no sense. It felt like it was just added because that's what you put in a YA book.
It's funny the the "cloud evolved to the Thunderhead" when the Thunderhead is supposed to be AI which isn't really what cloud typically refers too. I really hated the cloud-based imagery surrounding the AI for that reason.
They established that people are dying at much lower rates from the scythes than they were from issues in mortal ages, but Faraday establishes that he tries to kill people from various demographics at similar rates to what their actual fatality rate would have been in the past, which makes no sense. Further, they also established that people are still having a lot of children, so I don't see how this solves the supposed population overgrowth problem. Only one person talks about it having anything to do with "stagnation," so this does not seem to be the main motivation. The population growth is explained away by "the Thunderhead takes care of it" but if they're really killing that few of people each year, it should practically be a rounding error in managing them.
Further, it does not make sense for public sentiment to turn away from space research if they are really out of space. First of all, there will always be adventurers willing to risk their lives for missions like that. Second, even if there weren't wouldn't people prefer to be given a shot at working on a space mission and possibly dying a catastrophic failure than just being killed by a scythe? You would need engineers to work on the missions, but I would think they would at least make an attempt with randomly selected passengers if they were really so intent on getting rid of people. Overall, the premise of this book was just something I couldn't accept - I think the scythes would have needed some sort of more extreme power or overwhelming numbers to prevent the population from rising up against them. When we were only dealing with scythes or scythe politics, it was easier to accept because there wasn't this overwhelming disparity that I just don't believe an entire world's population would stand for.
The book definitely got more interesting when they were being trained by people other than Faraday. Faraday's method may not have been as brutal or unfair as Goddard's, but it still made no sense. Killing people because they fit the profile of people that might have died in the past makes no sense. It's not some virtue to avoid certain actions when they no longer cause harm to yourself or anyone else. The reason those things need to be avoided is because people prioritize their own ease or entertainment over the safety of others, which is wrong.
I really liked the scene where Rowan took on Goddard and his crew. It was a brutal scene, but very well-written. I also liked when Citra was traveling in South America and how the politics among scythedoms played out.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence and Murder