Review by D. D. Shade   —   December 28, 2001

Imagine you woke up one morning to find that everyone over fourteen years was gone. Not dead, no bones, no ashes, just gone. As you wander the street in search of your missing family members, children begin to bunch together in groups seeking security. You’re herded into large dorms, raised by drones and when you reach the ripe old age of fourteen you are sent to the meat factory where your body and brains are harvested to make the Cyborg soldiers the Overlords use in their war games. I, for one, cannot imagine a darker future.

In such a world it would not take long for our culture to disappear as new generations are born into a world devoid of anyone to teach them. Did I forget to mention that a few girls are allowed to grow older than fourteen? They are used to breed additional children, as the Overlords need large armies to fight their games. Cyborgs, when not hunting stray children or patrolling, fight the war games of the Overlords and many are destroyed. Harvesting the brains and muscles of children enables the war games to go on infinitely.

So, here we have a world of children who have been raised by machines incapable of showing love and to whom nurturance is a foreign concept. I’m not sure how long the world has been this way but it is clear that the children live and die at the will of the Overlords. They are fed and clothed, herded here and there, grope at one another as puberty nears and whisper the myths about long ago. Although the collective memory of before times is little more than shadow, it is enough to drive some children to escape from the dorms. Most who do so are quickly caught then killed or harvested. Some, who are a little brighter or have better instincts, may survive long enough to be recruited by Shade.

And just exactly who is Shade? A college professor before the ‘change’, he manages to be the only adult present other than the Overlords. Is he friend or foe? Guardian or Golem? Parent or punisher? And are the children his progeny or his property? I’ll never tell.

Into this grisly background Nix inserts four humans the reader cannot help but love: Ella, Drum, Ninde and Gold-Eye. Each of these children has a special gift — a change-talent. It is truly ironic that the very power that destroyed their would also gives the children gifts to help them combat the evil they face. Yet, as in all good speculative fiction, there is a price to pay for the use of one’s change-talent or magic.

The world Garth Nix has created in Shade’s Children is unique and provocative. Nix’s world is a tight construction that begs many questions. Would some, if they had the means to create it, desire such a change in the world? Is there a part of each of us that identifies with the Overlords? Do we admire them and desire to wield their power? Is our society becoming hardened to children? Have we ceased to value children as we were valued? How far removed from the day cares of today are the dorms of Garth Nix’s future? I have a colleague who teaches at the University of Nebraska who believes we are raising a generation who will not know how to nurture their own children because of spending more time in day care than at home with parents. Another scholar, Dr. Burton White, believes that children should not attend day care until after their third year because only a mother can provide the nurturing, approval and support necessary to develop a complete personality. White believes that day care providers cannot be as enthusiastic about a child’s first word or step as his/her mother can. Once you’ve heard a thousand first words, they kind of lose their significance. Dr. Jay Belsky believes that children who are placed in day care before their sixth month will become less attached to mother and more insecure.

It is also interesting to note that most of the research on child care has been done in high quality care centers while at the same time less than ten percent of cay care centers in this nation could be considered high quality. In other words, we know very little about the quality of care most children are receiving. Although just one side of the story, these research findings and opinions of scholars are food for thought. **

Garth Nix writes with a fluidity and depth that is soul satisfying to the avid reader. His characters are more complex than they appear at first glance and one cannot help but care about them and their future. I have so enjoyed this book and find myself so impressed with Garth Nix that I have ordered everything that he has written that I may embark on a Garth Nix marathon.

Nix was born in 1963 and grew up in Canberra, Australia. He has worked in nearly every aspect of the publishing industry and holds a BA in Professional writing from the University of Canberra. Garth Nix’s pet peeves are heavy traffic, cupboards that won’t day shut and narrow-minded, backwards-looking politicians. Nix has some advice for aspiring writers, “Read a lot, and read widely (not just in one genre or area). Write as often as you can, even if it’s only a few paragraphs at a time. Submit a lot, even if you only get rejections (all writers get rejections). Most of all, don’t give up.”

Shade’s Children won the following recognitions:
—1997 American Book Association Pick of the Lists
—1997 Aurealis Award Nomination
—1997 CBCA Notable Book
—1998 American Library Association Best Books for Young Adults
—It has been short listed for the Heartland Prize (US), the 2000 Pacific Northwest Reader’s Choice (US), the South Carolina Reader’s Choice Awards, the Evergreen YA Award and the Garden State Young Reader’s Award.

Garth Nix is also the author of Sabriel, another award winning (fantasy) novel for young adults and its sequel, Lirael that will soon be followed by Abhorsen. He is also author of The Ragwitch and the Seventh Tower series. Nix also did an X-Files novelization — an experience he says he did not enjoy as it was too confining.

His official web site can be found at: http://members.ozemail.com.au/~garthnix/garthnix.html

You can read an interview with Garth Nix at the Writers Write web site, which can be found at http://www.writerswrite.com/journal/jul00/nix.htm.

Some personal notations: My father drank his coffee black remarking often that darker was better. I don't drink coffee but I like my post-apocalyptic speculative fiction to be as black as possible. "Shade's Children" was every bit as satisfying to me as my father's morning cup of coffee. And, yes, darker is better.

I read a lot of dark apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic speculative fiction because I crave watching humans overcome the worst of odds. I find the human adventure to be simulating and motivating. As I have written elsewhere on this site, speculative fiction as a whole is the most appropriate form of fiction for observing the human adventure. And of the sub genres, apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic are the very best for setting up the literary laboratory to test hypotheses about the human condition. Garth Nix had a message to share, an experiment to perform and I believe he chose a post-apocalyptic world for that purpose because it was best vehicle for his message.

*Contrary to popular belief, I did not read or review this book merely because the title starts with my last name but it was eye catching.

**I do not mean to disparage day care providers and workers. Indeed my wife runs a family day care in our home. I am only stating the research, as I know it. Beware; for the sake of this review I have only cited research from one side of the argument.

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