I read this book a while ago. The book was recommended by my younger son’s teacher for his summer read. He had finished reading and placed it on the pile of books on his desk.
While I was glancing through his book shelf he read my thoughts and said, holding the book in his hand “ mom you can try this one”, with a dubious expression that said he was not sure whether I would like it or not. I nodded and grabbed the book as I was earnestly looking for a good read.
Scythe is a sci-fi novel and my first read in this category. The title of the book seemed a bit eerie to me but “we should never judge a book by its cover.” This very thought gave me a kick, soon enough I found myself engrossed in the book.
The story has been set in the times when humanity has overpowered death. People have attained immortality. And there is no natural death or death because of hunger and disease either. There existed a group of people called “Scythe” who have been empowered with in charge of taking lives and thus keeping population in check. They regarded themselves as a tool to glean (kill) lives. And it depended on their discretion who they choose for gleaning. And gleaning of that person provided immunity to his or her immediate family members and they will be secured against gleaning for the next year.
The story centers around two teenaged kids Citra Terranova and Rowan Damisch who were leading somewhat normal student life until they had been picked by scythe Faraday to join apprenticeship under him. Scythe Faraday,one of the oldest scythes, was very compassionate. He never enjoyed his job though did it for the sake of humanity. Both Citra and Rowan were reluctant at first but later on Faraday’s insistence agreed to become his apprentices.
Life takes an unexpected turn as they embark on this new journey. Every day brings them new challenges and surprises.How two individuals from different backgrounds and belonging to two different schools of thought come closer just to find that they will be competing against each other at the end of the training and,only, who survives will become scythe. How they pave their own way amidst these challenges and hardships, is quite enticing and worth giving this book a shot. I enjoyed it truly and thoroughly. This will surely be a good pick for them who enjoy fantasy and futuristic novels. Other books in this series are in my “to be read” list.