The premise of the book is an intriguing one. Eight light-years from planet earth a star created a supernova event that caused strange lights in the sky. Unfortunately, the supernova also polluted the atmosphere with radiation that attacks the human body at the chromosomal level. All humans over the age of 13 will be dead in less than a year. Leaders of every nation in the world take on the unenviable task of training the best and brightest 13-year-olds to run the world once the inevitable happens.
The book, originally written in Chinese, focuses on three students from the same classroom entrusted with the task of running China once the adults have all passed. An overwhelming task even for the most skilled adult, the needs of a nation weigh heavily on young people who are barely teenagers. Children's natural preference is to play. Trying to work at adult jobs while taking classes at night quickly becomes tedious and children simply stop going to work. The desire, all across the globe, to create a world that is more fun and play-based than the world the adults left them leads to the most bizarre and violent global game ever imagined.
I enjoyed the premise and the responses of the kids to the demands of the adult world were absolutely authentic. The only thing I found difficult to deal with was the author's tendency to wax philosophical in the midst of a work of fiction. It didn't necessarily detract from the story, but it did tend to slow the pace down a bit. But the story is still very well-crafted. There is one "why did they do this" kind of mystery that was left unsolved so I'm not sure if there will be a sequel of the author just meant to leave things not completely settled.
The book, originally written in Chinese, focuses on three students from the same classroom entrusted with the task of running China once the adults have all passed. An overwhelming task even for the most skilled adult, the needs of a nation weigh heavily on young people who are barely teenagers. Children's natural preference is to play. Trying to work at adult jobs while taking classes at night quickly becomes tedious and children simply stop going to work. The desire, all across the globe, to create a world that is more fun and play-based than the world the adults left them leads to the most bizarre and violent global game ever imagined.
I enjoyed the premise and the responses of the kids to the demands of the adult world were absolutely authentic. The only thing I found difficult to deal with was the author's tendency to wax philosophical in the midst of a work of fiction. It didn't necessarily detract from the story, but it did tend to slow the pace down a bit. But the story is still very well-crafted. There is one "why did they do this" kind of mystery that was left unsolved so I'm not sure if there will be a sequel of the author just meant to leave things not completely settled.