Shade's Children by Nix

It's the future. One morning, all the people on earth over 16 disappeared and in their place were the Overlords, generals of armies of creatures manufactured out of the remaining children. The armies play for fun and entertainment. At fourteen, children have their "sad birthday" and are shipped off to the meat factory to be used for spare parts. Children who manage to escape the dorms and meat factory often take up with Shade, a holographic version of a human who organizes a resistance to the Overlords. However, Shade has his own agenda, which is not always in the best interests of his children.

I understand Nix's forte is really fantasy, which I haven't read yet. From what I've seen of his science fiction, I'm not terribly impressed thus far. Shade's Children is a mix of promising parts, but the parts are better than the whole and have been done better in other people's books. The spare parts idea is better used in Unwind by Shusterman and the bloody games concept works more convincingly in Hunger Games.

There are a few other things that are troubling about this work. First, some of the sections of the novel are written in computer code, which is off-putting to just about everyone. Second, Nix's female characters are flat stereotypes: either sex-crazed flakes or battle-hardened ice queens. However, the male characters are more complex and convincing. Third, the book includes some pretty serious cussing, which just doesn't seem to fit. Nix skips lesser swear words and goes for the F-bomb straight out of the gate. The lack of other profanity made the f-word seem out of place and arbitrary. In summary, I don't think I'd waste my time on this one. It isn't worth the effort.