I particularly enjoyed watching Scythe Rand. Changes of heart or mind don’t happen quickly, but gradually, so as to let both the reader and the character adjust to new information. The way the characters develop throughout is believable and realistic.

The Toll is told from multiple points of view, and I loved every single one. One of the reasons for this is the excellent characters. I would tell myself just one more chapter in the hopes that I could squeeze one in before I had to get off my bus. It’s a novel that is difficult to stop reading. But once I accepted it, I found myself completely enraptured. The confusion hindered my entry to the novel somewhat. Years are named after animals, but I found it difficult to work out which year came first: the Cobra, the Ibex, the Raptor? And the calendar system of the series doesn’t help. Although deliberate, the confusion of the timeline left me disoriented. This is an element that, I felt, let the novel down a little. Time has clearly passed between the previous novel, Thunderhead, and current events, yet it is difficult to discern how much. The answer lies in the Tone, the Toll and the Thunder. Now that the Thunderhead is silent, the question remains: Is there anyone left who can stop him? It looks like nothing else stands between Scythe Goddard and absolute power.

I do not speak with the voice of the thunder.Įverything has changed in the world of the scythes. I loved the ‘Arc of Scythe’ series right from the beginning, and I felt no different reading The Toll.

The toll shusterman