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Summary: A Sci-Fi You Can't Put Down
Review: I read Shade's Children in one sitting. That's right. I sat down one warm summer afternoon and read, and read, and read... Three hours later I finally stood. This dark sci-fi is that hard to stop reading.
In this futuristic Earth there are no adults, only children, and they all live in fear of their fourteenth birthday. For that is when the mysterious warlords kill them and use their brains and other body parts to create monsters which are then used as pawns in a neverending blood sport. Few ever manage to escape from this grusome fate but Gold-Eye is one of those few. Fighting for survival, he joins up with Shade, a strange computer generated adult who sends teams of escapees on dangerous missions in hopes of one day finding a way to destroy the warlords. Gold-Eye and his three new friends, each with a special power, are Shade's best team. But can they really stop the warlords? And what about Shade? Can he really be trusted?
Dark, tragic, and engrossing, this book will hook you and not let go.
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Summary: An awesome book about another world of our own.
Review: This science-fiction novel is about four soldiers: Ninde, Gold-eye, Ella, and Drum, and their leader Shade. Shade is not human really, but a holographic image created by his former human self. The group live in a time 15 years after the Change began. Now their world is full of evil Wingers, Myrmidons, Screamers, Ferrets, and Trackers, in addition to their hideously evil Overlords. This period exists when children do not live beyond age 14 unless they are one of Shade's children. Shade's goal is to restore the world of humanity once more. I found this book to be a very good use of my spare time. Although it was a little hard to follow with the computer sometimes, I can still see why it is a Young Adult Book Award Nominee. It's very cleverly thought out, and I enjoyed reading it. The plot was creative and logistical, and even the fictional characters were as life-like as they could be. I would recommend this book for anyone ages 10 and over.
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Summary: Shade's Children
Review: Imagine that your spices are no longer dominant and everyone in the world over the age of 14 has suddenly disappeared. Now imagine that the wold as you know it is a race for life, survival of the fittest. If your caught you go straight back to the "dorms," where on your 14 birthday you are taken away for your brain to be harvested. Or if your lucky you'll die before they get you. But if you do manage to escape there is hope out there, in the form of a mysterious man named shade.
This book is a great, astoundingly well written book that will keep you guessing on what will happen next until the end. It has a perfect mix of action, humor, and drama with every turn of the page. When I read this book I could never put it down. This book catches your interest and clutches to it like a shipwrecked survivor to a piece of driftwood!
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and I highly recommend it to sci-fi fans everywhere! I say this because this book is simply put a great piece of work. You will connect with the characters as you follow them through this fantastic adventure.
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Summary: Shade's Children-My May book report
Review: Me, I'll try reading pretty much any book. But after about the first chapter, if I don't like it, I stop reading. This book had me hooked just by reading the back cover. I am a HUGE fan of science fiction. My 8th grade teacher recommended me to read this book. I am glad I did so.
The plot is something I never would have been able to imagine on my own. Somehow, all the adults have disappeared and the 6 evil overlords use 14-year-old kids to make battle warriors. The inventive plot however is only one of the things that make this book fabulous.
The characterization is also phenomenal. It really makes you to get to know the characters, and their life and hardships. I really felt Drum's identity struggle--tough guy/little kid. I felt Gold-Eye trying to fit in and curious about his new life. I even felt Shade's struggle, trying to decide if he is human, computer, or even just a hologram.
These two elements together are conveyed through the superb writing style. He tells one chapter like a story, and then the next like an interview or self-evaluation or something out of shade's data banks.
These three things combined together to make Shade's Children by Garth Nix, possibly the best science fiction book that I have EVER read. Thank you, Mr. Nix, for another success.
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Summary: Dark, scary, graphic, but the best ever
Review: A Review by Blake
This book takes place after the change. An event where everyone over the age of 14 disappears and alien overlords take control of the world. At the age of 14 children are taken to the meat factory and are subject to an extreme harvest where their muscles and brains are used to build the overlords' creatures. Those who have escaped from this harvest are taken in by the robot-like Shade. This story is mainly about Ella, Drum, Ninde, and Gold-Eye and the missions they are given to by Shade. Everything is fine at first but Shade becomes more and more reckless as they come closer to the truth...
The story draws you in with action and suspense while giving you foreshadows of what is yet to come making you want to keep reading. This book is written in a style all its' own. The book is written in chapters with interview sessions in between that let you know information of how characters escaped and Shade's own thoughts. The plot has many twists and leaves you surprised at every turn. While this is my favorite book, it isn't for everyone. The story is dark, scary, and very graphic at some points making it more of an adult book. Overall this is the best book I have ever and I doubt any book could be better.
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Summary: Shade's Children
Review: Overall this was a great book but it had a one major flaws. The ending happened suddenly, leaving many of my questions unanswered. Other than that it was a great book. I've herd some people complain about swearing, but thats how most 13-19 year old people talk. In my opinion if a book sounds real and believable its a good thing.
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Summary: A Great Read
Review: Shade's Children by Garth Nix"Screamers scream singly, all alone;
Trackers track in trios of three;
Ferrets follow in fangs of five;
Myrmidons march in maniples of seven;
Wingers fly in flights of nine." What would you do if you live in a world where you 14th birthday was your last? What is all you had to look forward to for a life was being sent to the Meat Factory and having your muscles harvested to create deadly creatures for rulers you never met? What if your only chance of survival was trusting in Shade? A person that is more like the creatures he fights than a man? Shade's Children is by far one of the most imaginative and creative science fiction novels that I have read. Though this is the only book I have read by Garth Nix, I have no doubt that this is a great book written by a great author. Unlike any book I have read, Shade's Children is full of facination and mystery that has to be solved. Why and where did all the adults go? That's all the children of the change know. Their parents disappeared one day, without a trace. Then the Overlords came. Then the Dorms were built. Then the creatures came. Gold-eye is just like any other boy you's find in the Dorms. A boy with only enough education to talk and read, skrauny, and pale. Only, he escaped the Dorms, and found Shade and his "children." Gold-eyes now has to help in a plot to the Overlords downfall that Shade seems so eager to carry out. Maybe too eager. Gold-eye along with Ninde, Ella, and Drum get closer and closer to finishing off the Overlords, but the closer they get, Shade becomes more and more ruthless. What does Shade realy want? He claims to be a sworn enemy of the Overlords, but he is willing to throw away the lives of his children in exchange for knowledge. Can Shade be trusted? This book is truely a book with few flaws. It's imaginative and witty, full of romance and mystery. However, every books has it's flaws. Shade's Children is a very graphic book, going into great detail about everything and does have some questionable language. This is a recommendable book for an audience from the ages of 13 and up and for those open-minded to this wonderous novel. Truely a great read, Garth Nix's Shade's Children is a must read.
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Summary: Nice idea.. but still could have been better.
Review: I read a review for this book on another website a few months ago and found the concept to be quite interesting, so I picked it up and soon found myself running into tables, desks, doors, and walls, simply for the fact that I could not put the book down. Shade's Children is set in a science-fiction alternate future reality where the world is controlled by the Overlords. At the age of 14, or a child's "sad birthday," they are taken to the "meat factory" where their bodies are used to construct monsters used to fight each other for entertainment of the Overlords. The story follows the path of Gold-Eye, a teenager who has escaped and now fights as one of Shade's Children. As the story progresses, we learn more about the computer-human shade and his intents. Shade's Children could be the ones to save all of humankind. This book was excellent, but in some places I felt like it could have been better. I never truly developed a bond with any of the other characters besides Gold-Eye, and Nix does not write with the flowing ease with which he penned Sabriel, Lirael, and Abhorsen. My friends liked this to-the-point style of writing more than that of Lirael, but I disagree; I suppose it is only a matter of opinion. It does, however, convey the mood of the book, and that may have been the intent of the author. If you are a fan of Nix, I would still reccomend reading this even if you have only read the Sabriel books. Even if you were not a fan of those, you may still find Shade's Children interesting.
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Summary: A book to WOW you
Review: This is the fourth Garth Nix's books i have read, and quite frankly i think it is the best. Only Garth Nix could write anything with this much thought and this many twists. Although i cried at the ending, (hey im a chick what do you expect?) i still highly reccomend reading this, not just for science fiction fans, but for any avid reader. Warning: Make sure when you start this book you have no disturbances and enough time to finish the whole book in one sitting.
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Summary: Excellent science fiction for young adults and adults
Review: This young adult science fiction novel from the author of the stunning fantasy "Sabriel" has some striking similarities to "The Matrix," although it was written before the film came out. In the future, enigmatic beings known as The Overlords have made all humans over age 14 vanish from the planet. All the remaining children were rounded up and placed in "Meat Factories" where they are bred to be used as raw material for slave-construct creatures, like Wingers, Trackers, and the fearsome Myrmidons. The Overlords use these creatures to play out cruel battle games for their own amusement. But a resistance exists: children who have escaped from the dorms and who possess powers that the change in the world has given them. These children work for a being called Shade, a human mind inside a computer. Shade claims to be working at overthrowing the Overlords, but he seems too willing to toss away the lives of the children who serve him. Our four main characters, Drum, Ella, Ninde, and Gold-Eye, come to suspect that Shade has a larger agenda than he says, even as the struggle to defeat the Overlords starts to advance in their favor. Although not as incredible a book as "Sabriel" (one of the best fantasies, adult or young adult, of the last decade), "Shade's Children" is action-packed, deeply imaginative, and filled with wonderful characters. The book is structured so that between the chapters dealing with the main action are short chapters containing computer read-outs, statistics, interview excerpts, computer self-analysis, etc. This is a clever device that splits up the action and gives dramatic tension to the rest of the book. The four young heroes are realistic and wonderfully written. Ella, the eldest, and a strong leader who feels the great weight of responsibility. Drum, powerful but sterilized from his time in the dorms. Ninde, a teen-girl at heart with simple loves. Gold-Eye, the newest addition, stunted in language but not in bravery or dedication. In many ways, this novel is his story, his journey of self-discovery. Lastly, there is Shade himself -- and there is much more to him than anyone knows or can even guess. Older teens and junior high school students who appreciate a mature kind of science fiction that won't insult their intelligence will love "Shade's Children." But I also recommend it to adult science-fiction readers; Nix is a tremendous talent, and he won't disappoint your cravings for action, characterization, and ingenious world-building.
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