The Toll

Wow. This whole series invites you to rethink life.

The Toll is the third book in a series that imagines a future where humans have created sentient AI and advanced medicine and technology to the point where no-one has to die. But, alas, folks do still have to die, so there is a whole group of people, the Scythes, who are charged with killing people to keep the populations down. There is a religious movement in this post-mortality age, where some adherents are quite fervent (as always), but they believe in one true resonant sound. Some stuff happens in the books where there is a big noise - because the AI gets mad/sad, and these religious people get pretty excited about it and set up a hero/prophet (The Toll).

This whole third book is set up with three “people” perspectives: The Toll, The AI, and The Sycthes...and we see how these things play out. There are actually a lot of fantastic characters, and quite a bit is happening, but that is the gist.

Surprisingly, Shusterman is able to wrap this up with an ending that is both a bit of a twist and somewhat anticipated - bringing all of our worlds together and apart.

Recommend the whole series - you cannot start with this book, though, start with Scythe.