Scythe

Neal Shusterman

Another home run. Very much in the same vein as the Unwind series, Shusterman creates a crazy world that forces us to explicitly engage with what it means to be human. With Unwind, he deconstructs the physical body, asking the reader to consider where exactly a person exists. In Scythe, we investigating the cultural and individual decisions that provide meaning. The context here is a world that is referred to as post-mortal. Science has developed the technology to heal everything. So we are post-disease and any ill that could possible befall a person can be healed. In addition, what we currently refer to as the cloud has evolved into Thunderhead, a benevolent AI to whom humanity has given responsibility for managing all the technical details of life. Governments are no longer needed. In this world, where there is no death, the system has been developed where Scythes are charged with gleaning the human population as a method of population control. This story follows two young teens who are brought into the Scythe apprenticeship program, where they encounter everything you might expect. In many ways, this is a modern The Lottery by Shirley Jackson. I love the politics, the teen struggles with violence, the need for purpose in life, how easy it is to slip into a group, etc. All of these struggles are real struggles that seem obvious in an extreme world, but are also real struggles for anyone living in the world today who is concerned with justice and living a life of integrity. A quick read, and great discussions.

As an aside, this is perhaps the first book that has a benevolent AI overlord. No one is trying to overthrow the AI, and the AI has improved life for everyone. I read recently a critique of our fear of AI by Michael Shermer and how many prominent scientists think an out of control AI is the most certain path to human extinction in our future. One interesting point Shermer posits is the difference between a male AI and a female AI. While many AI dystopian futures are predicated on a warrior AI, intent on domination and control (stereotypical male intent), he suggests that it is equally likely that an AI would develop with stereotypical female intent: nurture, collaboration and sustainability. Fascinating. I would say "equally likely" is only true if we get more women involved in AI development (Computer Science and technical fields). The odds of developing a female AI without female coding is nearly nil.

Read

Every Day

David Levithan

'A' (our protagonist) is a teenager who wakes up in a different body each day. He "borrows" that body, pushing the host consciousness aside while he is there, able to access memories as needed to interact as the host would. He only needs to know enough to survive, and not screw up the host life, until midnight, when he jumps to a new body. He has never known anything different, and has resigned himself to be as unobtrusive as possible in each host. Until he meets the girl. And falls in love. And then what? This is the ultimate in forbidden love stories. I enjoyed Levithan's initial exploration of identity with 'A', making me think about how you know who you are (see Middlesex). But it was left short, and I was largely unfulfilled in being led down this path of identity exploration. As readers we were not pushed into depth or provided a compass for inquiry. I am tempted to say you can only do so much with the YA genre, but that is a cop out. Some of the best social commentary/criticism in the past decade has come out of YA for those willing to listen (see Divergent and Unwind series). The only alternative is to say this is highly creative, yet ultimately mediocre as an instigator of thought.

Wait

Unsouled

Neal Shusterman

The third in the trilogy (Unwind, Unwholly), Unsouled picks up with the AWOL unwinds scattered around after their hideout is discovered and destroyed by the Juvenile Authority. Shusterman proceeds to spend the entire novel connecting the pieces of all the major characters. Unfortunately, he also decides to reconnect story-lines with minor characters. The storyline feels like he is trying to weave together an extremely complex plot into a clever and deep conclusion. In fact, a complex plot is not necessary (and comes out as manufactured complexity). Instead, since he has such great material in the unwind and rewind ideas, we should be watching the characters grow into their understanding of the implications of these ideas and alternatives. We get glimpses of the question of whether the Composite has a soul. But Shusterman never lets the characters explore this (and by extension, we don't get to explore it). In the end, I will recommend this only as a means to complete the series. It doesn't really provide the metaphysical substance that was promised in the first two volumes and it leaves too many loose ends (even though it seems his goal is to wrap all loose ends).

Wait

Unwholly

Neal Shusterman

In the follow up to Unwind, Shusterman continues with his story of teens who are scheduled to be Unwound (have 99.44% or more of their body transplanted). The interest for me in these stories are looking at questions of identity and soul. Questions where the science of biology meet up with the religion of biology. Shusterman pushes the envelope here by introducing Cam, the first ever fully composite human. This leaps past the ethical issues of cloning or abortion or genetic modification. To assemble a functional person from "organ donors". As in Unwind, the premise is so far out that we can ignore the practicality (as all good science fiction draws us to) and jump straight to the immanent moral/ethical/personal catastrophe that is unfolding. Does the composite have a soul? Does an unwound person die? Presumably no, so where is their soul? On a larger scale, we are also beginning to explore how a society/culture gets to a place where the status quo might be crazy. And how do you expose the craziness or begin to move a society/culture beyond to a better place? And can you do this only via violence? Shusterman sets up a third novel in this series to be able to look closely at these questions. Looking forward to it.

Read

Unwind

Neal Shusterman

This story takes place sometime in the future after the second Civil War. The war split primarily along pro-life/pro-choice boundaries and after too much fighting and killing, the two sides signed an armistice. It was a crazy, far out idea that neither wanted, but both could live with. Abortion became illegal. However, between the ages of 13 and 17, parents could have their kids unwound. That is, every single body part of the person would be utilized in transplant. This way, the unwanted child would not be killed, just redistributed. The story here follows a couple of Unwinds who escape and enter the underground system, just trying to survive until they are 18, when they will be legal again. Risa was an orphan, a ward of the state. She was sent to be unwound to make space for the new orphans coming in. Connor was sent to be unwound by his parents because he was just a troublemaker. And Lev was a tithe. His religious parents conceived him explicitly for the purpose of giving back.

The idea is really prepostorous, so we don't have to take it seriously. However, it is the extreme extension of some of the arguments that people make about embryonic stem cell research and abortion today. Shursterman is also quite clear in his purpose to make the reader think about the value of life as well as the definition of human. In a couple of striking sub-plots, we are confronted with the idea of identity and soul. What is it? Where is it? Who has it?

Well done.
Read