This novel follows the two main characters, Rowan Damisch and Citra Terranova, as they are chosen to be apprentices of a wise Scythe. The novel follows them through their studies of Scythedom and the moral dilemmas that follow being trained to kill.
Full of banter, cold killing, political maneuvering, and twists, "Scythe" is a mostly successful dystopian novel.
In my opinion, other than the world that they are in, characters are the most important thing in a fantasy or science fiction novel. A lot of people can dream up a world with new gadgets or magic or different political controls as ours, but for the most part, a reader won't care about that if the people in it aren't interesting and close enough to themselves that at some point they can see themselves in the novel.
Thus, in this world of the Scythes—delicately crafted to be so similar to our world and so realistically in the future for us that you can't help but wonder if this is how we'll turn out—I was mostly interested to see how Shusterman would place his characters inside it. For the most part, I was satisfied.
Many of the Scythes were reasoned and knowledgeable, old souls who had seen a lot and had access to whatever knowledge they wanted, with the exception of a few wildfire scythes providing part of the conflict of the book. This was as expected, however done in a way that didn't feel pretentious or annoying, and still managed to surprise me every now and then.
In terms of character, my gripes came with the main ones: both Citra and Rowan annoyed me. They felt inconsistent, crafted from stereotypes and then deviating from them only when it was convenient to the plot, or when you hated them so much you would put the book down without a break.
I found both of them to have a problem with everyone and always be hot on their feet. Now, most teenagers are in fact like that (me, in particular) but for main characters, it made their internal dialogue annoying to read, particularly toward the end.
Beyond that, the world was intricate and intriguing, and there was a good twist in the plot halfway through the book that I truly did not expect.
However, in terms of depth and intrigue of the plot, I had a few more issues. I predicted the ending immediately after the halfway point of the novel, and I found myself a little bit disappointed that as I read, it happened exactly as I expected.
That final scene between Rowan and Citra where they must face off didn't shock me one bit, and I was surprised that no one—not a single member of the Scythedom who have all been alive for years—could predict what Citra was going to do. It felt like a cop out, or a let down.
For most of this book, Shusterman steers the story deftly and deeply, even if the vessels weren't my favorite to tell the story, but the ending really left me feeling disappointed.
"Scythe" still said a lot about our world and had me thinking about technological advances and where that could go, and in that way, the novel stayed with me even when I wasn't reading which is always a good sign. But the plot just didn't do it for me here, leaving me conflicted on how I feel about the book as a whole.
Does that mean I won't read the rest of the series? No, not necessarily. There was enough redeemable and even formidable about this novel that I would be interested in continuing the series, however it's not exactly at the top of my TBR list.
Plot: 70%
Depth: 90%
Intrigue: 85%
Style: 80%
Characters: 80%
Overall: B-
No comments:
Post a Comment