Citra and her mentor Scythe Curie's lives are in danger as someone keeps trying to assassinate them for an unknown reason. Rowan has gone rogue and is killing scythes that murder for pleasure and power. The plot begins with Citra practicing manual driving and musing on how something is lost when technology does everything for people. In Nicholas Carr's book, "The Glass Cage", he talks about the loss of honing skills that require practice; a shift from human-centered activities to machine-centered and the apathy that comes with it. Citra is basically contemplating the same conundrum in that current society only uses self-driving cars and she just happens to be learning how to drive manually because Scythe Curie had one from the Old World. This old car requires a set of skills that she likes struggling to learn as a driver. Shusterman's utopia uses technology to show benefits but also hazards such as not thinking critically, losing skills, and not living in reality. Computers correct human mistakes and humans do not learn and grow through honing skills creating a type of advanced technological malaise.
Humankind mainly fears being gleaned by scythes, people chosen to kill civilians to help prevent overpopulation. All human needs are met. People can die and be revived. Immortality has replaced religion as people no longer fear death and can be revived if they do die. Only a scythe can cause permanent death or they can grant immunity from other scythes to live for a certain amount of time. Scythes live longer than any individuals and they have to self-glean or kill themselves. The scythes have incredible power in the community and the Thunderhead computer does not control or regulate them. Scythe and state are separate. This creates a problem when no one counters the scythes that abuse their powers. Rowan is an anomaly in society as he has made himself judge of corrupt scythes. The author creates a society where people are so distracted by their technology that in one scene a woman doesn't realize that Citra is there to glean her because she is so engrossed in her phone.
Humans don't suffer from disease or injury anymore. Nanites are implanted into people to numb pain. Shusterman goes even more in-depth with the world-building of this future and creates many twists that are unexpected in a well-crafted and action-packed story. This so-called technological paradise has some kinks in its armor. The Tonists are a religious group that has their nanites removed and try to live separately from society. They are marginalized and worship a tuning fork, a symbol of the devil's tuning fork and object that when struck gives a specific sound at a specific pitch. The Tonists specific pitch is hatred for scythes. The different Tonist factions mirror today's different religions in the world with some sects more extreme than others. The symbolism suggests that God has been replaced by the Thunderhead and the scythes are like angels of death with the villain like Satan who fell from grace. Or they can be grim reapers from mythology that just personifies Death. The Thunderhead has a law saying people cannot worship it. The Thunderhead says that the two most important actions of humans are creating and taking life. The Thunderhead leaves those acts in the hands of humans and therefore the suggestion is that it is not an all-knowing all-powerful God, although it has many omniscient qualities. However, at the end of the novel, the Thunderhead recognizes that although humanity created it, it is currently destroying the world and that they have become like infants who need to learn the value of consequences. The Thunderhead becomes more like a father-figure or Prometheus that cares for humanity and I'd argue it is becoming more creator-like. It will be interesting to see the arc of this thought in the next book.
Shusterman's world-building involves people who police society and enforce laws that are humorously called "Authority Interface". In addition, regions are developed where the Thunderhead does not observe or correct human behavior, like a big social experiment. The society's outlaws are called, unsavories, people that rebel against the existing system and enjoy defying it. However, the Thunderhead explains that this designation is an illusion because there is no injustice left to defy in the world. They eventually assimilate back into society as the Thunderhead cures them by giving them happy nanites or supplanting their thoughts or letting them grow out of their rebellious attitudes. The Tonists reject the Thunderhead's curing and want to feel pain and suffering. Certain scythes that are power-hungry hide in regions that the Thunderhead doesn't operate in. They know they are breaking the law and don't want to be caught. The scythe who is the villain wants to replace a democratic government with a dictatorship. This society shows that people have free will and there are always those that choose evil over good.
A new character, Greyson Tolliver, is introduced who becomes a spy for the Thunderhead trying to prevent the assassination attempts on Citra and Scythe Curie. He infiltrates the unsavories and begins to enjoy the freedom they have from the rigid structures of society. Social outlets such as restaurants and bars are established for unsavories where they can act out their rebellions. People are hired to play the parts of the boyfriend supplanted by an unsavory or bartender who gets into a brawl with another. These illusions of rebellion are where Greyson meets Purity, an unsavory that truly chooses to be "evil". She hides things from the Thunderhead because she knows it "would relocate me... tweak my nanites to make me think happy thoughts.. and supplant my memory completely." She would be cured but she does not want to be cured. She likes to have a choice in how she lives her life.
Greyson is drawn to Purity's out-of-control nature who enjoys being bad and even killing. Of course, people get revived when they are dead; however, Purity crosses a line when she wants to hurt people in such a way that they can't be revived making her mark "like animals do..." (198). Greyson was raised by the Thunderhead. His parents were not there for him and he is loyal and loves it. He doesn't use that emotion but his actions show someone who will not cross a line like Purity. He knows right from wrong and chooses to be good. Because the Thunderhead asked him to protect two people, he puts it above all else. He calls it "his mission" and never wavers from serving it. What's interesting is that the request has given his life meaning just as doing "bad things" has given Purity's life meaning. The author is always exploring the meaning of life in this highly technical world.
Other ethical dilemmas involve Rowan who goes by Scythe Lucifer and judges those corrupt in the Scythedom. He kills those that abuse power, but Faraday questions whether or not he is becoming proud or inhuman. Faraday wants Rowan to regret killing and write it in his journal to stay in touch with his human side. Otherwise, he is ironically like a killing machine or robot. It is human conscientiousness and moral choices that separate scythes from machines. The Thunderhead could have created a robot that kills people to deal with overpopulation but instead uses people because it is the human side that makes this act more merciful. When Rowan gives a man a chance at redemption, he kills his father in return. Free will makes this story complicated and the moral choices people make in light of a technological power that has no hubris makes for no easy answers. The ending is a cliff hanger that makes me excited to read the next book in the series.
5 Smileys
