Scythe
In a distant future, humanity has conquered death. Disease, aging, and even fatal accidents are things of the past, all overseen by the Thunderhead—a benevolent artificial intelligence that has quietly perfected human society. The only deaths that remain are those chosen deliberately by scythes, an elite order tasked with keeping the population in check through a solemn act called gleaning.
When teenagers Citra Terranova and Rowan Damisch are selected as apprentices to the principled Scythe Faraday, they are thrust into a vocation neither of them wanted. Over the course of a year they must master the disciplines of a killer—weapons, poisons, history, and the weight of ending a life responsibly—knowing that only one of them will earn the scythe's ring.
As their training deepens, Citra and Rowan discover a widening rift within the scythedom itself: between an old guard that treats gleaning as a sacred duty and a rising faction that revels in slaughter. Caught between conscience and ambition, the two apprentices are forced to ask what it means to kill well, and whether a flawless world is worth the cost of the people who must police its edges.
The first book in Neal Shusterman's Arc of a Scythe trilogy, Scythe is a thought-provoking speculative thriller about mortality, power, and the moral price of utopia.
A competitive, principled teenager chosen as an apprentice scythe; later takes the name Scythe Anastasia.
An overlooked teenager selected alongside Citra to apprentice under Scythe Faraday; by the close of the book he goes rogue under the name Scythe Lucifer.
A charismatic new-order scythe who conducts mass gleanings and treats killing as spectacle.
An old-guard scythe who takes gleaning as a solemn responsibility and mentors Citra and Rowan.
A famous, respected scythe of the old order known as the Grande Dame of Death; she takes over Citra's apprenticeship.
The project is currently in development as a television series, a shift from its original status as a planned feature film, with Steven Spielberg involved in the production.
This is the first installment of the Arc of a Scythe trilogy, which concludes with the third book, The Toll.
Neal Shusterman wanted to explore the consequences of a truly perfect world where humanity has conquered death, leading him to envision a society that requires a specialized order to manage population control.