This week's novel is Scythe, YA utopia by Neal Shusterman.
In the future, a powerful, benevolent AI called Thunderhead controls the world, ending hunger, poverty, and death. People who are hurt have nanites in their blood to dull the pain and heal them overnight. People who die are revived in a matter of days. When people get too old, they "turn a corner" and get their appearance dialed back to their mid twenties. In all this, in order to curb population growth, Scythes are given a license to kill, and the people they kill stay dead. Scythes have a quota and are disciplined if they show bias or seem to be enjoying it too much. Scythes are revered, and although people fear them, people also offer up food and opera tickets and cars in hopes that they'll gain favor and be spared. Citra and Rowan, two teens, are taken on as Scythe apprentices, a job neither of them wants (which is a qualification of a good Scythe). They learn how to kill, how to be merciful, and how to be just, while wrestling with morality.
There are so many things about this world building that I find interesting and refreshing. I like that it's not a dystopia. The AI really is benevolent and trying its best. It flat out says it won't be responsible for who dies, because that's a human issue and humans should be responsible. There's no conspiracy, no big reveal that the soylent green is people. The conflict arises from people within the system getting up to human hi-jinks, and the Thunderhead allows room for people to still be awful to each other, which makes a statement about how even in a brilliant future, people are still going to be crummy sometimes.
It also makes a point about how people in the post-mortal world don't have all that much to live for. On the whole, death is meaningless, so throwing someone in front of a bus in a rage doesn't accomplish all that much and everyone gets over it eventually. With no threat of death, there's not much to make people treasure the lives they have, and so emotions aren't as strong as they once were. Art isn't as good. It's stated that since the Thunderhead has already solved all the technological problems, there's nothing to be innovated on.
And that gets into the parts of the world building that I'm not thrilled about. There's nothing left to be invented? Really? No one's writing books about their fear of Scythes or overcoming the sadness of someone you love being killed by a scythe or how painful it is to drift away from your family after a hundred years or so? There aren't new fears that arise in the post-mortal world? A few of the characters deal with being parts of huge families (since everyone can have a kid a decade and still have dozens of kids) and feel like no one cares about them. That seems like a fertile place to make some art. I don't buy that there's nothing left to feel, but I'll go along with it because these aspects are here to strengthen the "without death, there's no life" theme. I'm also skeptical of the economy of this world. Several people complain about how expensive it is to be revived, but there's no danger of people not doing it. It doesn't bankrupt anyone; it's just an annoyance. How did Thunderhead eliminate systemic poverty? Again, these are questions that the book isn't interested in, and I get it that they don't really matter.
The heart of this book is about transition in the way Scythes do their jobs. The old guard believe you should be respectful and get it done quickly. Do one a day or so and get to know a lot about the person whose life you're taking. The new wave though believe that people should go out in a blaze of glory and it should be an exciting end. Isn't dying in a huge explosion a better story? The old guard believe that the point when you start to take pleasure in killing, you stop being a Scythe and start being a murderer. Meanwhile the new guard wants to know why they shouldn't like what they do, and why they shouldn't enjoy being an essential component of society. The apprentices are presented with both these views and have to wrestle with them.
While I really like books that say, "here's a weird situation, how would a human react?" it's not super clear what this book has to say about our world. Enjoy life to its fullest? It's a good thing we can't all be immortal? Treat the people you kill with respect? Not sure. But the lack of obvious relationship to our own existence makes this a pretty fun, quick read.
***
Next week: Mortal Engines, YA steampunk by Philip Reeve
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