The Toll

By: Neal Shusterman

Narrated by: Greg Tremblay

Length: 15 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's Summary

In the highly anticipated finale to the New York Times best-selling trilogy, dictators, prophets, and tensions rise. In a world that’s conquered death, will humanity finally be torn asunder by the immortal beings it created? 

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. 

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.  

©2019 Neal Shusterman (P)2019 Audible, Inc.

I dunno..

I was super excited for this book. But like the others were saying, the ending seemed rushed and not what I was expecting. There were parts that were confusing, side stories that didn't need to be there. parts that should have been explained better- weren't. Plus trying to keep track with the time travel jumps and trying to figure out where/when everyone was, was honestly exhausting. Overall, it was a let down. I loved this series, but I just didn't want a book that centered mostly around Greyson With Citra and Rowan being the back-drop as they were the most interesting of characters.

10 of 10 people found this review helpful

DONT OPEN THE PDF UNTIL YOU FINKSH

It contains a spoiler! I don’t know what audible is thinking! Do not make the same mistake I did.

14 of 15 people found this review helpful

A lot for one book.

Arc of a Scythe's first two books kept me entranced. The story combined with the narrator's acting actually made me feel how tense some of the moments were meant to be. The Toll, seems a little all over the place..almost like the author couldn't decide which direction he wanted to go. Neal jumped around in to many different time periods, and tried to wrap up side plots. There was a lot of build up through out the story, and the pay off was...lack luster. Coming to an abrupt conclusion.

This book introduced a lot of new characters, and put the original main cast of characters in a back seat role. To me this made the story feel more shallow than anything. It hinted at the adventures of Rowan and Citra and brought focus back to them just long enough to make sure they were still relevant enough for the end of the story. Other moments in the story, the author has the point of view bouncing back and forth constantly, making it difficult to keep track of who is who. It also doesn't get any easier when every character goes by at least two names.

This book also takes time to pander to certain crowds. One character in particular had minimal impact on the story, and was obviously used for pandering., Neal spends quite a bit of time being in your face about their upbringing and life choices. As another review has said, this information did nothing to progress the story.

Disappointingly, this audio book comes with a PDF, and Audible is very upfront that there is a PDF to accompany this book, and in my excitement on this book's release, I opened it. It was pretty much spoilers. DO NOT OPEN THE PDF if you have not read/listened to the book. Luckily my friend and I pieced together what might have happened and it wasn't a big surprise.

5 of 5 people found this review helpful

Not as good as others

This book concludes this story. It is different, not as good as other two but I wanted to know what happened so kept listening.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Best left to the imagination

Like most, book 1 probably got you hooked, even though the entire premise is beyond unbelievable, but as readers, we went along for the ride and enjoy it. Book 2 clearly fit into the series, but what Scythes do, and that no mass uprising has yet occurred, starts to wear a little thin. By book 3 I am just dumbfounded by humankind's slow reaction to the events as they unfold, as well as how so many things about the "back brain" went utterly ignored for decades (i.e., the lack of recovery of lunar corpses due to "scythe activity") ... yeah, sure. Not to mention the bizarre lectures on gender equality, the referance to Trump and the Wall... I mean, come on. This should have been concluded in book 2, no question. If you have read book 1 and 2, just read the PDF Audible provides with the purchase, and you'll know all you need to know about where this story is going.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Surprisingly dull

I'm quite surprised at how dull this story is. The pacing slows to a crawl and more than half of the book is just characters interacting with one another without anything really happening. When things finally start moving, it jumps around too much and some of the content feels like filler with little purpose or significance to the story. I started tuning out because the content felt pointless to keep up with. Once again, our main couple spends 95% of the time apart doing their own thing, yet somehow we're supposed to believe there is some great binding love between them. Anastasia is somehow even more one dimensional and flat in this installment. After reading the last book, I was expecting more.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Amazing

It's crazy how I would never read or listen to books but The arc of the sythe I would wait for the next book like it was the most important thing in my life thankyou for making me live books.

8 of 11 people found this review helpful

preachy / poor ending

the author got all wrapped up in "wokeness" and couldn't help but preach and preach. worse, though, he painted himself into a happy corner, determined to wrap everything up with a bow, delivered a snooze ending with very little bang for the buck.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

A Dystopian Utopia?

I would like to state that the premise of this book is fascinating. Is the impending AI coup going to be defined by logic or love? What happens when everything comes to be known and is therefore mundane? The first two books were great and really focused on the fallibility of humans in a catered society, overseen by a kind shepherd instead of a cunning wolf.

Personally, and I must stress this point, “I” personally found the current societal commentary a little arbitrary (only an idiot builds a wall) and the character Jericho felt like it was plugged in at the last moment in order to win an argument, but the emphasis on the Thunderhead and what it’s evolution must contain was very well done. One can only hope that humanity can expect benevolence in the form of an artificial intelligence.

A good ending to a great series, but the difficulty of a third album is certainly present.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

fantastic book end

pushing gender fluidity was a bit much but was easy to get over great book

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

An exellent end to the series

I am going to have to listen to this series of books over and over again. The writing is imaginative, serious and in places amusing. The storyline is complex yet leaves you wanting more.

The Toll is a fitting ending to the series and brought together so much from the first two books. I wonder if there is a prequal in the pipework as some in depth history for Faraday and the Thunderhead would be something I would love to hear.

Neil Shusterman is an excellent author and Greg Tremblay a brilliant narrator who gave depth and life to all the characters.

The Toll

I personally was satisfied with the ending of this series. It was a rollercoaster ride with a slow build up, but when the plot moves it move fast to almost to the very end, until it gives you a chance to breath and settle down. it was great

A new favourite trilogy

I'm not crying 😭
What a fantastic end to this fantastic trilogy.
My heart still hurts from the ending of book 2 and this has both healed me and broke me. Not a dull moment or character.

Eagerly awaited, but not as good as first 2 parts

The positive first, there is a third part, there is nothing worse than listening to two parts of a trilogy and then the third never materialises. So I am glad, that this was not the case.

And it was not totally bad, just not as good as the first two books had lead me to hope.

The story meanders and too many new characters are introduced, the story does not follow a strict timeline, but there is a lot of foreshadowing I found not gripping but annoying.