M.W. Lee's Reviews > Scythe

Scythe by Neal Shusterman receives four stars from me due to the excellent story, and the interesting dystopian world.

This was an audio book so a comment on the reader, Greg Tremblay, is in order. Tremblay has a nice voice. His interpretation of the characters, I thought, was good and on target. He doesn’t do vastly different voices, but his voices are different enough to distinguish each character. I can’t think of anything that stands out that he did wonderfully well, but the overall performance drew me in. I recommend him as a reader.

Now on the book. Shusterman creates an interesting dystopian and in many ways post-apocalyptic world. Let me explain: The novel is set on Earth post mortality. Humans (and other animals) do not die. They are revived. Humans are no longer mortal. In many ways the event that changes everything is when humans conquered death. What makes this dystopian is government no longer exists, but the world is ran by a computer called the Thunderhead, who has the best interests of humans in mind. This is one of the reasons I found this world dystopian. Man is immortal, and a computer is running things. Human growth and achievement are in the past. In many ways this reminds me of Brave New World. Everyone is basically happy but have no drive. Another reason I think this is dystopian is that not only are humans revived when they die, but they can go to a rejuvenation clinic and exit the clinic in a 21 year old body (or any age no younger than 21.) Humans are living well past 100 but are still having babies. What interests me in this is that every dystopian society has to deal with the birth rate and the death rate to maintain the status quo. Logan’s Run has carousel and regulated births. The problem with this society is that they have not worked out the balance between new births and deaths, and with people able to have babies into their 100s, this is a problem.

The solution is the Scythes who are men and women chosen and trained to keep people completely, as in never sent to a revival center. Never returning. Real death. How the Scythes act creates more of the dystopian worlds.

I found this story rich in characters, rich in plot, good juxtapositions, and good themes. Themes such as: questioning what one is told, friendship, belonging, acceptance.

Recommended: Yes!