Shade's Children - Softcover

"A dynamic page-turner, fast-paced action and the intensity of the entire situation make for exciting reading."-- "ALA Booklist"

"A slick, dark, engrossing novel. Grim, unusual, and fascinating."--Horn Book Magazine

"Fast-paced, exciting, well-written, and engaging."--School Library Journal

"This pitch-dark, post-apocalyptic thriller will keep you reading and wild-eyed. Fast, brutal and brilliant."--Scott Westerfeld, author of Uglies

"An exciting read."--Kirkus Reviews

"The alternate world he [Nix] creates is amply imagined and the twists and turns of the action-filled plot compelling."--Publishers Weekly

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 ...