the personal journal of Brent Stewart
_The Toll concludes the Arc of the Scythe trilogy that started with Scythe and continued in Thunderhead. Those books are about a future where humanity has transcended death through regeneration, but there is still a need to prevent overpopulation. Administering death falls to a group of people referred to as Scythes. This is a young adult book series dealing with a very mature topic. There are descriptions of people dying and I felt that the first book walked a line, while the second book tripped on the line and into a pornography of violence. Science Fiction has always found a way to approach a topic from a new direction, but I’m not confident that young teenagers understand their own mortality enough to get the more high-minded theme.
The recurring death and resurrection of characters reminds me of Philip Jose Farmer’s Riverworld series. I read that as a young teenager and I think some of what was being described passed unobserved in my reading.
Meh. My teenage son really enjoyed this series, but I’ve struggled with it at times. Part of that is a different appreciation for death, it being much less abstract at my age. Part of that is because I felt the plot dragged in areas.
At the end of book two, I said that I needed to see how it ended before I could recommend. Well, having read the whole series I can report that Shusterman stuck the landing and I feel better about the series. I don’t share my son’s high opinion, but it was a good read. I felt like Scythe was more contemplative about death and Thunderhead and The Toll turned away from the concept and into storytelling.
Shusterman, I think, is aiming above the maturity of his audience. That said, book 3 read fairly quickly and the plot developed some real propulsion in the second half.
Your mileage may vary, and I recommend discussing it with your teen if you buy it for them. I don’t think I recommend it, mostly because I feel there are better books, but tastes vary and others will enjoy this series more than I did.