User:Ethan Sandidge/sandbox

Scythe Book Summary Scythe opens with a mysterious journal entry by H.S. Curie. She writes that a group called the Scythes must keep a record of all the people they kill. In her view, all people are innocent, and she often feels torn between guilt and justice for these socially sanctioned murders.

In this future world, everyone lives forever. Medical science has advanced so much that all disease, hunger, aging, and fatal accidents have been effectively erased. When people are terribly injured in a car crash, they’re considered “deadish,” as there is now a cure for just about everything. When people reach old age, they can “turn the corner” and age in reverse. The process can go on indefinitely.

Government as we know it has ceased to exist: it’s been fully automated. Thanks to Thunderhead (an artificial intelligence that emerged from the digital cloud), all services are rendered automatically at virtually no cost. There thus is one government for the entire world. With everything consolidated, language has also simplified, for example, Middle America is now called “Midmerica.” People now group themselves according to number more than race or class. For instance, when discussing race, characters will say they are 28 percent white, 18 percent pan Asian, 9 percent black, and 45 percent Latino. In this future world, everyone is of mixed race.

Since no one dies, overpopulation is an issue. The Scythes, like the samurai, are an independent body of blade-wielding individuals that formed organically to meet the needs of their society.

One day, a man who introduces himself as Honorable Scythe Faraday arrives on the doorstep of sixteen-year-olds Rowan Damisch and Citra Terranova. He grimly tells them that they will become his trainees and learn every aspect of organized murder. They were chosen because they’ve demonstrated high morals and upstanding character.

Rowan is very honest and selfless, and returns the loyalty of friends. Citra is straightforward and clearly loves her family. Neither one of them want to be a Scythe. Scythe Faraday replies “that is the first requirement.” They eventually agree because they’re socially obligated, and they learn that their families will be given immunity from gleaning.

Rowan and Cintra are sent to camp and apprenticed under Scythe Faraday, who becomes a father figure to them both. The narrative switches between Rowan and Citra’s experiences and is accompanied by journal entries from each. They both feel extreme inner conflict at the prospect of killing people, but also hope to pass their tests and move from apprentice to full-time Scythe. Despite the stress of “Scythdom,” they develop romantic feelings for the other.

Rowan and Citra are taught the code that all Scythes must follow when deciding who should die, or be “gleaned.” They’re told that each Scythe has 240 people each year. They do not discriminate based on race, and each Scythe must tally up the blood quantum number of the people they murder. They’re told that the young can be targeted as well as the old, and that they must cease any and all romantic longings. They’re not to believe in friendship, and they’re certainly not allowed to marry.

When test day arrives, administered by “Grand Dame of Death”, Rowan and Citra intentionally fail. As punishment, they’re told that one must now glean the other.

Scythe Faraday seemingly kills himself so Rowan and Citra won’t have to continue the apprenticeship, but Scythe Curie and Scythe Goddard agree to take them on as apprentices. Scythe Curie is a nice woman who feels badly about Faraday’s death. Scythe Goddard, meanwhile, is awful. He and his apprentices love killing people, and they’ll resist killing anyone for months so they can commit mass murder through entire buildings.

Rowan and Citra eventually face off in several competitions. They each pretend to hurt the other to cause disqualification or delay. In the final competition, Citra punches Rowan as hard as she can, breaking his nose and causing him to bleed profusely. She makes sure that some of his blood lands on her Scythe immunity ring. As Citra moves toward a prone Rowan, her blade grows red, and the rings of all the other Scythes light up. They yell at her to stop, no Scythe can kill Rowan for at least a year because his blood hit one of their immunity rings.

Citra pretends she had no idea this was the case. As the Scythes discuss what to do with Rowan, Citra helps Rowan up. She whispers that a getaway car is waiting outside, driven by none other than Faraday. Rowan escapes.

-Ethan Sandidge