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The Toll is book three in Neal Shusterman's Arc of a Scythe book series. The Toll was first published on November 5th, 2019.
Blurb[]
Citra and Rowan have disappeared. Endura is gone. It seems like nothing stands between Scythe Goddard and absolute dominion over the world Scythedom. With the silence of the Thunderhead and the reverberations of the Great Resonance still shaking the earth to its core, the question remains: Is there anyone left who can stop him?
The answer lies in the Tone, the Toll, and the Thunder.[1]
It’s been three years since Rowan and Citra disappeared; since Scythe Goddard came into power; since the Thunderhead closed itself off to everyone but Greyson Tolliver.
In this pulse-pounding conclusion to New York Times bestselling author Neal Shusterman’s Arc of a Scythe trilogy, constitutions are tested and old friends are brought back from the dead.[2]
Plot[]
The book picks up three years after the end of Thunderhead. Citra and Rowan have disappeared through the sinking of Endura, and Scythe Goddard became Overblade of North Merica, and the Thunderhead closed itself off to everyone by making everyone unsavory. Everyone but Greyson Tolliver.
Endura has long sunk, Goddard is now Overblade of MidMerica, and Tonists have begun to instigate violent acts against anything that The Toll doesn’t like. The Toll, formerly known as Greyson Tolliver, has become the Tonists’ “prophet” of sorts. Everyone on Earth besides The Toll has been marked as Unsavory, leading The Thunderhead to be silent to everyone but him. Scythe Faraday and Munira Atrushi have found the Kwajalein Atoll and two secret bunkers. One they could open, but another scythe is required to open the bunker with the supposed “failsafe”. With no way of escape, having crashed their plane, they learn to live off the land for a year or two. At the same time, a few former Nimbus agents kidnap Greyson, hearing of his so-called power of being the only person on earth not unsavory. He gives them coordinates courtesy of The Thunderhead. Which lead to the Kwajalein Atoll, many islands all creating multiple atolls. Also at the same time, salvagers have decided to retrieve all they can from the ruins of Endura. The only notable salvagers are a Madagascan named Jerico Soberanis, called “Jeri“ by their friends, and their crew on the E.L. Spence. This team is the one that brings up the Vault of Relics and Futures filled with the scythe diamonds and, unknowingly, Citra and Rowan. Scythe Possuelo is on-board and manages to hide both of them in his region.
Nimbus agents have been gathered by Audra Hilliard, the Director of the Authority Interface of MidMerica, to go to those coordinates. They do go there, but around 800 of the 900 do not survive due to the turret that are on the island to prevent unwanted visitors. Scythe Morrison was convinced to glean the Toll by Goddard, but only acts like it because he feels as if he has been accepted and is in his element. The Toll, Scythe Morrison, Sister Astrid, and Curate Mendoza go around the world, calming violent Tonists. Manufacturers around the world get work orders like they have never seen, calling for new molds and blueprints, cut to specific measurements. Citra and Rowan are hidden in a region that has not aligned with Goddard. They stay in a castle occupied by Scythe Possuelo, his BladeGuards, and an apprentice. At first, the apprentice just seems awed at Scythe Anastasia's presence, but later it is revealed that he betrayed his master and told WestMerica about Rowan and Citra being in the castle. Most of the NorthMerican continent has aligned with MidMerica and Goddard at this point, leading Goddard to know that both of them are alive and well. When WestMerica attacks the castle, they kidnap Rowan and take him back to Goddard. Citra manages to be escorted onto Jerico's salvager ship unnoticed during all of this. Since WestMerica thinks Citra went to another region unaligned with Goddard, they head over to the wrong place in the wrong region. While escaping to an Afric region (SubSahara) that hasn't aligned with Goddard, Jeri and Scythe Anastasia strike up a friendship. Jeri falls in love with the idea of falling in love with Scythe Anastasia, but is only fond of her.
Once in the SubSahara region, Scythe Anastasia and Jeri meet up with the High Blade of the region who was instructed to meet them by Scythe Possuelo. Jeri, although having received no such order from Possuelo, tells the High Blade that they were instructed to be Anastasia's guardian. This was done out of a will to protect Anastasia, a gift to their crew to give them some well-deserved time-off, and a testament to their sense of stubbornness after denied. The scythes of the region convince Anastasia to broadcast what she has found in the Thunderhead’s “backbrain”, incriminating Goddard and proving that she is alive. "Sibilant" Tonists attack the mansion with grenades and all sorts of incendiary devices, rendering many people permanently dead, including Scythe Baba and Scythe Makeda, as well as High Blade Tenkamenin. Jeri is rendered deadish and brought to a revival center with Anastasia in tow. Goddard, in possession of Rowan, sends forth an invitation to everyone in NorthMerica. The invitation is for a public gleaning of Rowan at a stadium. He also plans to broadcast the gleaning to those who could not attend.
The gleaning is revealed to be burning Rowan alive; which Rowan recalls Xenocrates outlawed in MidMerica because of him. When the time comes, however, the technician that was responsible for organizing his burning is found tied up in Rowan's place. Rowan escapes with the Lone Star scythes, and Goddard plays off Rowan's escape as part of the show. The real reason why the people are there, he says, is to glean them all. He says, "ONLY scythe may take pleasure in the ending of life, or have you forgotten?". Goddard then tells the scythes gathered around the stadium to glean the crowd of spectators in what would eventually be called the Mile High gleaning. Jeri is revived and Anastasia, once more, becomes Citra to avoid suspicion. The Toll and his inner circle go and visit the Sibilants in the Ogbunike Caves, turning them against their previous ways and giving them, albeit reluctantly, a second chance. All but their curate, who refused to repent and was gleaned by Morrison.
A lead takes Jeri, Anastasia, and reunited Scythe Possuelo to the very same cave that is housing the Tonists and the Toll. The Toll and Anastasia recognize each other, to much confusion and surprise for the others. The two go on a walk and discuss what happened while she was deadish, Goddard and her broadcasts, and a scythe that might help her incriminate Goddard. The mysterious scythe is named Scythe Alighieri. Possuelo leaves due to being called back to his region by his High Blade. Since the Thunderhead cannot tell Anastasia where Alighieri is living, Greyson decides to use a workaround to tell her the location.
The workaround is Jerico, and the two have a conversation, not too dissimilar from a trialogue. In this conversation, two main things occur. First, they discover where Alighieri lives (the farthest city from the coast in the Britannia region.) Second, The Thunderhead tells Greyson it "...sensed a change in your physiology in your discussion with the salvage captain...". Greyson is annoyed that the Thunderhead has also sensed this.
Greyson decides to go with Jeri and Anastasia to visit Scythe Alighieri. Alighieri decides to make a broadcast implying that Goddard has performed more than one crime knowingly, aiding Anastasia's venture to knock down Goddard from the position of Overblade.
Meanwhile, the blueprints and molds have been fulfilled and have been transported to the 1000+ people on the islands that are trapped on the island. When done, they resemble (and are) spaceships. There are 42 of them, all identical. Faraday's assistant is told a rumor that Scythe Anastasia is alive, but he refuses to get his hopes up in case they are crushed.
While Jeri, Greyson, and Anastasia go to Guam, the Thunderhead takes control of Jeri’s body while they are asleep. The Thunderhead says that this is a crucial part of proving that it can resist the temptation of staying in flesh and that there is no time left for something. When the Thunderhead releases control of Jeri's body, Jeri flips Greyson over because they do “not like being helpless.” Both Greyson and Jeri are against the Thunderhead taking control of Jeri’s body, but neither of them could do anything. At Guam, an inspector sticks a tracking device to the team’s ship since it has a destination of nowhere and a cargo of nothing. After inspecting it, he calls Goddard to let him know that both Scythe Anastasia and the Toll are together. The team leaves the port and travels on to a place that doesn’t exist.
They reach the islands where the ships are, towing along a cargo of Tonists that the Scythedom has gleaned as a substitute for everything that has gone wrong. The islanders carry the cargo up to the ships, and Rowan is found hiding in one of the boxes. Faraday and Anastasia reunite and unlock the chamber that holds the lock to the failsafe. They go out and meet Rowan. The team, minus Anastasia, meet up at a meeting chamber, where a Thunderhead-like AI named Cirrus Alpha speaks to them. It explains everything in detail; including the fact that it is not bound by the same laws that bind the Thunderhead, that everyone will have a day to decide whether or not the people on the island will go up into space to escape the corrupt Scythedom and gleanings. Everyone goes to sleep and Cirrus is uploaded to all 42 spaceships. In the morning, Greyson wakes up to the Thunderhead telling him, very loudly, that it is a good idea for everyone on the island to take a journey because Goddard and his team are flying towards the atoll to find Anastasia and the Toll.
The other planes flying with Goddard desert him, but Goddard came prepared with enough ordinance to destroy all 42 ships in rage at the Thunderhead. 2 ships are destroyed on the launchpad, gleaning everyone aboard. Those who decided not to go get on a boat, leave the islands entirely, but some, including Greyson and Jeri, get on a boat and go to the middle of a lagoon, watching the lift-offs. Citra gets hit by a piece of shrapnel from the exploding ships and is carried to a ship by Rowan. She is rendered deadish, but Cirrus is instructed to revive her only when the ship reaches its destination in around 117 years. Scythe Rand, in the plane with Goddard, renders him deadish and takes the escape pod to safety. She later supplants Tyger's memories into Goddard’s body, effectively gleaning Goddard.
Faraday and Munira activate the failsafe, causing all 400 thousand scythe diamonds around the world to burst from the inside out. They are filled with malicious nanites that are programmed to kill 5% of the world’s population 5 times a century. The nanites mimic 10 diseases: smallpox, cancer, heart disease, pneumonia, stroke, malaria, tuberculosis, cholera, influenza, and bubonic plague. The people who escaped on the spaceships don’t have to worry about that since they escaped before the failsafe was set off. Greyson and Jeri stay on the island, with both of them not sure what to do. They both have feelings for each other, and Jeri decides to change what dictates what gender they are. They change to being a woman on land and a man at sea. While the sea washes over their feet, Jeri says they feel as if they are both; and Greyson feels just fine with that. Greyson also destroys his earpiece and declares the Thunderhead unsavory to him because it violated one of his laws when he took over Jeri’s body, deciding that it will be redeemed “in time” like how humanity will be redeemed to the Thunderhead. Citra wakes up, 117 years later, with Rowan standing over her and welcoming her to their new world. Some scythes, including Scythe Faraday, continue performing the new way of gleaning, called sympathy gleaning, but they all do so out of compassion and mercy for the people that suffer during their deaths.
The Scythedom is closed down, and the colonists on the spaceships escape and have no contact with planet Earth, leaving them blissfully clueless about the state of things.
Chapters[]
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Part One: The Lost Island & The Drowned City
Part Two: Tone, Toll, & Thunder
Part Three: Year of the Cobra
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Part Four: The Only Toll We Can Wield
Part Five: Vessels
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Characters[]
- Citra Terranova — A junior scythe.
- Rowan Damisch — An ex-scythe apprentice.
- Scythe Faraday — Citra and Rowan's former mentor.
- Scythe Goddard — A powerful scythe of the new order.
- Greyson Tolliver — An ex-Nimbus agent trainee.
- Jerico Soberanis — The captain of the E.L Spence.
Special content[]
- B&N limited edition of The Toll includes exclusive chapter-by-chapter commentary from Neal Shusterman, providing background for characters and scenes and explanations of why he made specific decisions in writing this novel.
- The Fairyloot exclusive set is a limited hardcover edition with a exclusive cover, reversible dust jacket featuring Greyson Tolliver's artwork by phantomrin, foil on hardcover – front and back, and comes with Neal Shusterman's digital signature.
Gallery[]
Covers[]
Trivia[]
- Neal confirmed the characters on the cover of The Toll are: Scythe Rand (left), The Toll (center), and Scythe Possuelo (right).[3]
- Neal's favorite book from the Arc of a Scythe series is The Toll because he feels is the most powerful of the three and wraps up the story in a satisfying way.[4]
- As part of the promotional campaign leading up to the release of The Toll, the site askthethunderhead.com was launched.
References[]
- ↑ The Toll | Simon & Schuster
- ↑ The Toll | Goodreads
- ↑ "Light green with jewels: Rand. Forest green, no jewels: Possuelo. Purple with a sound-patterned scapula: The Toll." Neal Shusterman on his Reddit AMA
- ↑ Scythe: Q&A with Author Neal Shusterman in the Scythe Barnes & Noble YA Book Club Edition