A Review of the Arc of a Scythe Series

The Arc of a Scythe series by Neil Shusterman is a sci-fi, utopian, philosophical young-adult trilogy. It is set far in the future, on an Earth where famine, poverty, illness, discrimination, natural disasters, and impactful crimes are unheard of. Even death has been conquered. A digital being called the Thunderhead (like the ultimate cloud, get it?) controls everything - it regulates the weather, acts as a government, enforces the law with cameras everywhere, and most importantly, is available to communicate with any person who needs it, acting as a best friend or parental figure.

In this world, every person has enough money to survive, so they work simply for pleasure or to keep busy. Healing nanites in the bloodstream rapidly mend all injuries and pain nanites prevent any discomfort from said injuries. When a person grows old enough, they can reset their age to whatever they want. If a person somehow dies, revival centers placed all around the world will return them good as new within a few days. The Thunderhead also recognizes that some people have a craving for disorder or a need to rebel against society, and those who it can't rehabilitate are marked "Unsavory." Unsavory people are kept in regions of the world where the Thunderhead experiments with different rules and methods of keeping their criminal actions (which it allows) contained. Unsavories are one of the two groups of people not allowed direct access to the Thunderhead.

There is one problem, though, and it's one that plagues us even today - overpopulation. In a world where people have the right and the means to not die, and all space travel has ended in disaster, what happens when space runs out (food is not an issue, as there are food synthesizers who create artificial food)? The Thunderhead figured out at the creation of this new world that the only way to prevent overpopulation is for humans to die. But it also recognized that if it were to choose who dies, it would become the world-dominating artificial intelligence that everyone in the Mortal Age had feared, and it would never be trusted. Its solution is scythes - an elite group of people separate from society whose job it is to choose, without "bias, bigotry, or malice aforethought," who should die and kill them (though they use the word "glean" rather than "kill"). Scythes have a quota of how many people they must kill per year, based on Earth's capacity. They are also capable of providing a person with immunity from gleaning for one year, and can only (legally) die from a self-gleaning.

Scythes have a set of ten, and only ten, rules they must follow. They are also not allowed to communicate directly with the Thunderhead, and while this stops the Thunderhead from gaining too much power, it also prevents it from being able to intervene when scythes become victims of human fallacies such as greed that caused the downfall of governments in the Mortal Age. In the first book, teenagers Citra Terranova and Rowan Damisch are taken on as apprentices to Honorable Scythe Faraday. Faraday is considered an "Old Guard Scythe," meaning he follows the ideals of the founders of the Scythedom, which are generally framed in the book as morally good. Citra and Rowan slowly come to understand the difficulties of a scythe's life - they are ostracized by society and treated differently by friends and family. Unlike the public thinks, scythes also have a moral obligation to dislike their job, so they never get used to the pain of taking a life.

But Citra and Rowan face troubles beyond the normal physical, mental, and moral rigor of training to join the Scythedom. Faraday is the first scythe ever to take on more than one apprentice, so they are scrutinized and put in competition with each other. Faraday soon reveals his worries about the so-called "New Guard Scythes" who don't hold the same old values, and even enjoy gleaning - a dangerous thing for people given a licence to kill. The series follows Citra and Rowan as they learn how to resist these New Guard Scythes as more and more come out of the woodwork. They, allies within the Scythedom, and even the Thunderhead must quietly fight them and the dangers they bring from behind the scenes, and in accordance with the law.

The Arc of a Scythe series philosophically explores what a utopian society would actually look like. It points out how damaging a human's need for power can be, but also how it can strengthen one's morals. The stories are not just intriguing because of the action, mystery, and sense of kinship between the characters that most good books have. They also force you to reflect on our own society and the actions we take. Personally I think that it feeds into the fascination the many people have with the darker parts of ourselves that they don't get to explore that often. It makes the reader confront the idea of death and how unexpected it is even though we go through our whole life knowing it could approach us at any moment.

I also like the writing style of the books. They have a serious tone but are still often subtly humorous. There are many well-written twists, relatable moments, and a romantic storyline that doesn't take over the plot, which is a trap I think many modern fiction writers fall into. One drawback is that sometimes the mysteries and descriptions are drawn out so much that reading them can get boring, but ultimately the stories and the ways the mysteries are resolved are worth it. Overall, Arc of a Scythe is a brilliant trilogy that will make you think a lot about the world we live in, but is also great for anyone who likes action or mystery novels.