Book Reviews
Title: Shade's Children
Author: Garth Nix
# of Pages: 345
Year And Publisher: 1997 HarperCollins Publishers
Age Appeal: 15-20
Plot: In the brutal world of Shade's Children, your 14th birthday is your last. Malevolent Overlords rule the earth, directing hideous, humanoid creatures to harvest the brains and muscles of teens for use in engineering foul beasts to fight senseless wars. Young Gold-Eye escapes this horrific fate, fleeing the dormitories before his Sad Birthday. He is rescued from certain doom by other refugees who live in an abandoned submarine and work for Shade, a strange, computer-generated adult. Shade provides food and shelter in exchange for information that the children gather on dangerous forays into Overlord territory. But what does Shade really want? He is a sworn enemy of the Overlords, but his use of the children to gain knowledge and power seems uncaring and ruthless. Finally, Gold-Eye and his new friends set out to destroy the Overlords--with or without the enigmatic, dangerous Shade.
Ratings
Cover: 2/10
God ugly cover. What were they thinking? Oh no! Attacking tinfoil men! It gives information about the book, but without any style. And from the descriptions in the book, the creatures look nothing like they were intended. Instead, they look like something out of Tron.
Characters: 8/10
Shade is done well, and the children not as well. The overlords could have been developed much better, but are left an infuriating mystery. Still, shade's character is a very deep and interesting subject.
Story: 9/10
Although "attacking aliens!" have been done a few times, no one has twisted the plot quite like Nix. Very unique, the little blurbs of Shade between the chapters make everything develop nicely and suspensively.
Ending: 10/10
Ends with a BANG! Action, suspense, overcoming daunting odds, but when it finally comes to a conclusion, it almost seems like it was too easy.
Overall: 9 /10
I read it a couple of times when I was younger, and the next time I would read it I would understand more. A 12 year old could read it, but they won't fully appreciate it until they were older. Nevertheless, it was a good book, just with a very bad cover.