Scythe by Neal Shusterman Published by Simon & Schuster
WHAT happens once all the world’s problems are solved? This is the first of many engaging questions posed in Neal Shusterman’s dark young adult sci-fi series Arc of the Scythe which begins with Scythe.
Many novels have looked into a dystopian future, yet it is rare that we analyse the implications of the opposite. Shusterman takes up this task and asks what a utopia would be like, how that would relate to humanity, art and life itself and whether in fact, it could actually be all that perfect.
With the recently published Gleanings, a collection of stories which take place in the world of the series, now is the time to catch up with the original trilogy.
In Scythe, all of the world’s knowledge is contained within The Thunderhead which governs the world and ensures access to necessary resources for all without bias – and is available to everyone. With this vast knowledge, all causes of death have been eliminated and the population is largely immortal, able to heal and turn back ageing.
However, in order to maintain this comfortable and perfect new world and have space for all, some people must still die. To resolve this problem, it was decided that people of the highest moral standard would be appointed to the role of Scythe, charged with the gruelling task of killing or “gleaning”, manually managing the population at random.
Those who take on this task are met by all with a combination of respect, fear and often sycophantic behaviour in the hopes of attaining the elusive gift of a year’s immunity.
When two unlikely teenagers, brutally honest Citra and compassionate Rowan each have an encounter with honourable Scythe Faraday and impress him with their unique attitudes of disdain toward the process of gleaning and kindness to his victims they are offered a unique opportunity.
While the two are initially hesitant to accept, they become the two apprentices of a Scythe for one year. An experience made all the more tense by the knowledge that in the end, only one will be chosen for the world’s most highly valued and lonely job while the other will be sent back to their regular life.
The story follows their training process, in culture and history, studying the days of mortality and emerging at a heart-wrenching realisation; that art meant more and life had a greater sense of purpose with the risk of death and that the people of this future have forgotten what it is to feel with such intensity and in some ways are jealous of it.
Alongside the growth of Citra and Rowan’s characters are the publicly available journal entries of a Scythe by the name of Curie, with emotional and revealing reflections on the world’s structure and the questions of philosophy it raises.
The Scythe trilogy takes a creative and gritty approach to young adult science fiction, with around 400 pages seeming to pass by quickly and creating a fascination with this world. Shusterman’s ability to twist the concept of a utopia into a question of what it is to be human and how perfect life can be before it is once again a mess is astounding. With a killer concept (pun intended) and engaging writing, Scythe is the perfect start to an exciting trilogy.
