The Toll by Neal ShustermanMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
" "Why stress my emotional nanites by thinking of terrible things?"
A fine philosophy until the terrible thing comes to you."
The final book of the Arc of a Scythe series ended the trilogy with a neat ending, although one I didn't see coming! And while it left me unsatisfied with the fate of some characters, it is still a pleasant thing to recover from that cliffhanger of an ending in Book 2. The good thing about reading the last book in a series is that there aren't any more cliffs.
Shusterman takes elements of our own world and puts it in his book. Here we have a bisexual character whose gender changes with the weather, to underscore how changeable and inconsequential it is for some. We also have a powerful leader whose lust for power makes him change the laws of his country so he can persecute... and eventually kill... all the groups who dare to question his authority. And we have the Thunderhead, whose story arc asks, just how long can artificial intelligence remain... artificial?
A quick read, a great plot. Typical Shusterman. If I had to rate the books, however, I'd say Book 1 was great, Book 2 was the best of them all, and Book 3 was... OK. I imagine this would appeal greatly to a YA audience, especially because of all the moral and ethical quandaries brought up in the books.
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