This is the third and final book in the Arc of the Scythe series. I reviewed book 1, SCYTHE, and book 2, THUNDERHEAD. If you don't want anything spoiled about the previous books, I would highly recommend not reading this review.
Sidenote, I read this book back to back three times since it was initially released, which, at 640 pages, may seem like a lot, but I wanted to make sure I got every detail since so much happens and it's so good and so beautiful. Spoiler alert: I actually love how it ended (or the big reveal if you will). SO GOOD.
Since this is the final book of the series, I'm going to change it up a little and rather than summarizing until roughly the 30% mark of a book, I'm going to stop when it feels correct. (Whoa, so rebellious, I know.)
Alright, here's an amazon summary, "Citra and Rowan have disappeared. Endura is gone. It seems like nothing stands between Scythe Goddard and absolute dominion over the world scythedom. With the silence of the Thunderhead and the reverberations of the Great Resonance still shaking the earth to its core, the question remains: Is there anyone left who can stop him?
The answer lies in the Tone, the Toll, and the Thunder." AMAZON LINK OF JUSTICE
At the end of Thunderhead, Endura sank with Citra and Rowan locked in the vault with all of the scythe jewels; the Thunderhead had essentially just cried out, marked everyone as unsavory except for one particular human (Grayson); Scythe Goddard was up to his scheming of taking over the scythedom, and then probably the world. Scythe Faraday is off trying to find the land of Nod....
Let's start with Scythe Faraday. Scythe Faraday has adventured to the land of Nod with his trusty companion (whose name escapes me but she was essentially the archivist who read all of the Scythe journals at the library and kind of thrust herself into the confidence of Scythe Faraday last book and now they're on an adventure to the land of Nod). They manage to land...with enough difficulties that their aircraft is taken out, leaving them stranded on this island where the Thunderhead's technology cannot reach. After exploring the island, it seems that there is a set of doors which requires two scythe rings to unlock. ...but they only have one. Over time, the Thunderhead manages to send a fleet of nimbus agents to the island, but many perish in the attempt to land due to the island's self defense system which also took out Scythe Faraday's plane. With more people on the island, they're able to devise a better way to survive, and a way to contact the Thunderhead. The Thunderhead sets about delivering orders to seemingly random people to build on the land of Nod, but what does the Thunderhead have in mind? How are they going to get another scythe on the island? Scythe Faraday ends up retreating to a different, smaller island and bides his time in simplistic peace as the Thunderhead continues to build in it's silence.
Grayson is with the Tonists. He has become a figurehead to the group as The Toll and guides the tonists with the voice of the Thunderhead in his ear. Grayson is trying to steer all sects of the tonists onto a better path, well at least a less destructive path in most cases. Goddard wants to be rid of the tonists though, so when an assassin is sent to kill Grayson, things get even more interesting. Grayson fakes his death. recruits his would-be assassin as well as a small team from the tonists, and sets off to curtail some of the more violent tonists.
Goddard has steered the scythedom into something more blood thirsty and power seeking. He was already on that road, but now he has started to issue different decrees, and changing how the scythedom has operated since inception. The grand slayer scythes are gone, he's trying to wrangle the different dominions under his control, and amidst the havoc of the Thunderhead marking everyone as unsavory, well, he's being pretty successful.
Citra and Rowan are found after Endura sank by a salvage captain named Jericho. The vault is brought up originally for the scythe diamonds but their bodies are found, retrieved/sent to the amazon dominion for rejuvenation. When they wake up, they find that much has changed about the world during their deadish years... three years to be precise. Citra is challenged to dig through the back brain of the Thunderhead for different happenings around odd data. The more Citra uncovers, the more it is revealed how older scythes have not behaved for the benefit of humanity, but more for the benefit of keeping the scythedom in power. Citra starts releasing videos to the public to confirm she is still alive and to reveal what she has uncovered in the back brain. Rowan is kidnapped by Goddard's people with a grand spectacle to be made of his slaying.
Dun dun dunnnnnnn
That's enough summary.
I LOVED THIS BOOK SO MUCH. There was a great balance of history, the new character of Jericho, the meeting of different characters we've followed for so long, before the final reveal of what's really going on in the land of Nod, and even more story about Goddard of all freaking people.
But it was so so good. This is why I immediately read it three times back to back. I hope there are no more books in this series as it comes to such a good conclusion and it should stay that way. Bravo Neal Shusterman, bravo.
Happy reading!
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