365 Days of Books

I really enjoyed The Abhorsen Trilogy by Garth Nix. I was not as thrilled with The Ragwitch. I waver somewhere inbetween about Shade's Children. The world and characters of Shade's Children are very interesting: in a single day the world was turned around when all the people over the age of 14 disappeared and strange warriors and their servant machines started collecting children to use for replacement parts for their battle machines. It is a scenario which could support lots of stories.

I've thought a lot about what it is about this story that sets me on edge. It took me several days to read although it is a slim book (345 pages) and then another couple of days before I was ready to blog it. The alien human warriors are the main bad guys and their main evil is that they care nothing for the humans of our earth; to them, the children are baby animals who will one day be ready to be harvested for parts. Shade seems to be an adult human (saved as a computer program) who cares for the children and tries to save as many as he can but he has his flaws and those flaws put the compatriots at the center of the story at risk. Maybe that is it, that I want to trust Shade and I want Shade to be trustworthy but I fear that he cares as little for the children as the warriors do.

I do recommend this book. It made me uncomfortable but it wasn't poorly written and other people may not find it as offputting as I did.