Gleanings recap

A collection of short stories set in the world of the Arc of a Scythe trilogy, several of them written with other authors. The pieces stand alone rather than forming a continuous narrative, and between them they span the whole history of that world: the early decades of the Scythedom and the generation that founded it, the years surrounding the events of the trilogy, and the time after its close. They assume the world's ground rules rather than explaining them again, and a number of them assume the outcome of the trilogy as well.

Gleanings is a companion collection to the Arc of a Scythe trilogy rather than a fourth novel. Its stories are separate and self-contained, each with its own cast and setting, and together they range across the entire timeline of the series: the founding era of the Scythedom, the long stretch of ordinary post-mortal centuries before the trilogy begins, the period of the trilogy itself, and what comes after it. What every story shares is the world's premise, established in the novels: humanity conquered death, the Thunderhead governs everything else, and population is controlled by scythes, who alone may end a life permanently and who answer to no authority but their own order. Because the collection reaches past the end of the trilogy, some stories rely on knowing how that story finishes; the collection is best read after the three novels.