Arc of a Scythe Book Series

I started the first book in this series on 12/5/2022. The world has advanced far enough medically and technologically that humans can’t die. If someone does die, a drone picks up their body and brings them to a revival center. So how do you handle overpopulation when people are brought into the world, but no one ever leaves? Have people called scythes whose only job is to meet a killing quota. These scythes are the only beings who can cause permanent death.

Scythes handle their jobs in different ways. Some are honorable while others are malicious and do mass gleanings (killings). The only consolation of being gleaned is that the rest of your family gets to kiss the scythe ring, which guarantees you safety for a year.

The first book focuses mostly on the scythedom and the politics within. It’s an easy read and if you like it then you’ll enjoy the rest of the series as it only gets better. The followup shifts to the Thunderhead which is basically an AI that governs the whole world. It has the capacity to be everywhere at once and a lot of people see it as their friend and therapist. The one thing it can’t do is interfere with scythe matters. If a scythe is going to glean someone, the thunderhead can’t directly stop it from happening like it could with any other event.

Major spoilers ahead….

Citra and Rowan were solid characters, but Greyson quickly became my favorite. He was a questioning kid that didn’t take things at face value. The conclusion of Goddard organizing the sinking of Endura which killed all inhabitants including the Grandslayers was insane. It made me not want to wait another two years between books and I started The Toll several months later.

The Toll is a little slower than the previous novels, but the buildup to the climax was worth it. Surprise surprise, Greyson is the toll. Watching him navigate being the prophet and the confident way he’d handle himself was fun. The world building of the first two books really paid off with this one. I didn’t mind the leisured pacing because of how invested and eager to learn more I was.

My favorite twist of the series was that the Thunderhead originally planned a nearly flawless expedition to colonize on a new planet in order to solve the overpopulation crisis and thus prevent gleanings. Goddard was aboard this expedition and made a deal to sabotage and kaboom everything in order to keep scythes necessary and powerful. The Thunderhead of course could not make this known as it was now a scythe matter, so Citra had to puzzle out this information herself before revealing it to the world.

The conclusion had a lot going on in a short period of time. The activated failsafe destroyed all the scythe rings and released nanites that would kill 5% of the population every 20 years, thus eliminating scythes and their duties. Rocket ships to escape and colonize new planets were released and after Goddard blew up a few, Rand killed him and then returned Tyger into his old body. Citra was deadish and couldn’t be revived till their ship landed to its destination planet, so Rowan had to wait 117 years to be reunited once again with her. The rest of the tonists that were gleaned would be supplanted with memories of carefully chosen individuals to help acclimate to the new planets after they were revived there.

Rating: 769/1000