Often in a trilogy you get amazing set ups in the first two books, and then a sense of vague disappointment as they don't all hang together in the third. I think the Scythe trilogy is almost the inverse of this - you get some slightly weird and unconvincing world building in the first two books, but then it comes together like a beautiful resonance in the final book. The island the Thunderhead cannot find. The failed space explorations. The strange Tonists.

These books continue to use their strange set up to explore big ideas. What if there really was a prophet who really could talk to an all knowing God?

They also remain quite silly though. Goddard coming back again again and managing to attack the space colonists in a plane with bombs at just the point they're launching is exactly the sort of slightly ridiculous dramaticness that makes them so good and so unbelievable all at the same time

They end up in places I'm not very comfortable with morally though, and for all they explore some of the big things, they sit surprisingly glibly with some of the others. The Thunderhead's casual stealing of the bodies of all the Tonists to fill them with personalities it likes better is ikky, and isn't really fixed much by 'oh, I'll put some tonists on the Worst Possible Ship then'. And the ikkiness of the Thunderhead borrowing Jeri's body to have a sublime moment of closeness with Greyson. Still, at least Greyson makes the Thunderhead suffer some consequences for that one. I mean, I know the Omnipotence of the Thunderhead is important for the plot, but having worked with computers the way the entire world have trusted themselves to Thunderhead Knows Best is deeply terrifying. And the whole 'Scythes bring back Natural Death and the Thundercloud can't intervene because it's a scythe action, and then... people just Die Really Nastily again' is not the ending I was looking for.

I'm still unconvinced by Citra and Rowen (even though I'm a sucker for Doomed Love normally) but I loved all the bit characters. The librarian who didn't make it as a scythe. Jeri the compitent gender queer ships captain. Even Scythe Rand - ok, her betrayal of Goddard because of her love for Tyger is heavy handed and a bit unbelievable in places, and why does the Competent but Evil woman have to meet her downfall over her Feelings?. ( )

I thought this was a great end to the Scythe trilogy. The Thunderhead is absolutely my favorite character. I also liked the stuff about colonizing other planets. Goddard's death felt a little anticlimactic, but the battle overall was really good. 10/10 - February 26, 2024 ( )

Finally, the conclusion to the Arc of a Scythe series. This book is, like all books in the series, extremely well written an a joy to read. I love how it uses "mystical" religious writings to establish its lore. And this is where it all comes together, and this universe becomes ever bigger.

I particularly enjoyed reading about how a seemingly ridiculous idea has grown into a full-fledged religion, including the most un-prophety prophet one could imagine. Even beyond the tonists, this book has so many interesting things that give you food for thought. The Thunderhead seems like a benevolent ChatGPT, and it makes one wonder if this is a future we're heading into - but I think ours will be much darker.

What could have been better was the pacing (again) - the story focuses a lot on some aspects of the story, but others, the ones you really want to know about, are few and far between.

I greatly enjoyed reading this series, as it evident from me having read this 600 page book within two days. ( )

Daaaamn this was a looong third book in this story arc. Shusterman crams so much into this story ~ it's mostly good and really interesting but sometimes he is too enamored of biblical allusions and complex vocabulary & syntax.

The teen in our house loves this series. ( )

What a great book! What a great trilogy!
I have to admit I saw some of the twists coming so I wasn't all that surprised but it was still such a great read. The only thing I regret about reading these books is that I can't read them for the first time again... ( )