Flingo
23rd February 2007, 10:30 PM
Rescued Thread
donnae 2nd October 2006 11:31 PM
Continuing with my C/YA adult reading, I was looking forward to reading Shade's Children having read a short review of it in a Sunday paper. I had thought it was new book, but it is a re-release as it was originally published in 1997.
Amazon synopsis:
The master of children's fantasy returns with a thrilling science fiction adventure. The clock is ticking for the children of the world, and the key to survival rests in the hands of Shade's Children. In a futuristic urban wasteland, evil Overlords have decreed that no child shall live a day past his fourteenth birthday. On that Sad Birthday, the child is the object of an obscene harvest resulting in the construction of a machinelike creature whose sole purpose is to kill. The mysterious Shade - once a man, but now more like the machines he fights - recruits the few children fortunate enough to escape. With luck, cunning, and skill, four of Shade's children come closer than any to discovering the source of the Overlords' power - and the key to their downfall. But the closer the children get, the more ruthless Shade seems to become!
The story opens with the pursuit of one of the main characters - Gold Eye, so called because the affect the Change has had on him, by some of the grotesque creatures that have been manufactured since the Change. He will become one of "Shade's Children".
An event took place on Earth almost 15 years ago, the Change, which removed every human being over the age of 15. The world appears to be controlled by Overlords who raise children in dormitories until they are 14 years old and they are then taken away and "processed" for the Overlords evil purposes. Some children do escape, and a few lucky ones find themselves becoming "Shade's Children". Some of the children also have special powers due to the Change, such as telekinesis and telepathy.
The book gradually reveals the nature of Shade and what his purposes are - does he want to save the world or himself?
There is a lot of action in the story, but I found the pace dragged a bit in the middle. The ending seemed to be very sudden, and it did leave me with a few unanswered questions, but overall it was a very good story.
Some of this was quite brutal, and I probably wouldn't recommend it for children under 14. I saw it as a story about having to grow up and being responsible for yourself and others.
I haven't read any other books by Garth Nix and chose this because of it being science fiction. A quick glance at some of his other books reveals they may be more fantasy based. Is this the case?
Flingo 4th October 2006 06:28 PM
I don't know Shade's Children, but certainly the Sabriel / Lirael / Abhorsen trilogy are very fantasy based. The Days series (Mister Monday, Grim Tuesday etc) is set in our world, but with another world in parallel where the main character travels to (from what I remember of GrimTuesday).
donnae 2nd October 2006 11:31 PM
Continuing with my C/YA adult reading, I was looking forward to reading Shade's Children having read a short review of it in a Sunday paper. I had thought it was new book, but it is a re-release as it was originally published in 1997.
Amazon synopsis:
The master of children's fantasy returns with a thrilling science fiction adventure. The clock is ticking for the children of the world, and the key to survival rests in the hands of Shade's Children. In a futuristic urban wasteland, evil Overlords have decreed that no child shall live a day past his fourteenth birthday. On that Sad Birthday, the child is the object of an obscene harvest resulting in the construction of a machinelike creature whose sole purpose is to kill. The mysterious Shade - once a man, but now more like the machines he fights - recruits the few children fortunate enough to escape. With luck, cunning, and skill, four of Shade's children come closer than any to discovering the source of the Overlords' power - and the key to their downfall. But the closer the children get, the more ruthless Shade seems to become!
The story opens with the pursuit of one of the main characters - Gold Eye, so called because the affect the Change has had on him, by some of the grotesque creatures that have been manufactured since the Change. He will become one of "Shade's Children".
An event took place on Earth almost 15 years ago, the Change, which removed every human being over the age of 15. The world appears to be controlled by Overlords who raise children in dormitories until they are 14 years old and they are then taken away and "processed" for the Overlords evil purposes. Some children do escape, and a few lucky ones find themselves becoming "Shade's Children". Some of the children also have special powers due to the Change, such as telekinesis and telepathy.
The book gradually reveals the nature of Shade and what his purposes are - does he want to save the world or himself?
There is a lot of action in the story, but I found the pace dragged a bit in the middle. The ending seemed to be very sudden, and it did leave me with a few unanswered questions, but overall it was a very good story.
Some of this was quite brutal, and I probably wouldn't recommend it for children under 14. I saw it as a story about having to grow up and being responsible for yourself and others.
I haven't read any other books by Garth Nix and chose this because of it being science fiction. A quick glance at some of his other books reveals they may be more fantasy based. Is this the case?
Flingo 4th October 2006 06:28 PM
I don't know Shade's Children, but certainly the Sabriel / Lirael / Abhorsen trilogy are very fantasy based. The Days series (Mister Monday, Grim Tuesday etc) is set in our world, but with another world in parallel where the main character travels to (from what I remember of GrimTuesday).