Child Soldiers: Difference between revisions

* In ''Suicide Kings'' from the ''[[Wild Cards]]'' series Dr. Nshombo uses child Aces as soldiers. Since they have superpowers this would normally put them in the precocious category, except for how he gets them. He takes normal children in large numbers and exposes them to the wild card virus. This kills most of the people exposed to it. About nine percent suffer extreme but survivable mutations. And about one percent gain superpowers without being mutated, known as Aces. Aces or those with useful mutations are conscripted. The rest, including those who turn out to be [[What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?|"deuces"]] are shot.

* The [[Gone (novel)]] series. In book 1, the [[Big Bad]] has recruited superpowered kids from Coates Academy to fight for him, and [[The Dragon]] has an army Child Soldiers armed with guns. In book 2 and 3, [[The Hero]] has an unoficial army of teenagers with superpowers, and [[The Lancer]] is the comander of an army of Child Soldiers with guns. [[The Dragon]] [[Complete Monster|beating a 9-year-old to death while laughing]] [[Even Evil Has Standards|is enough to disgust even the]] [[Big Bad]]. Justified because they live in a [[Teenage Wasteland]].

* The [[Posleen War Series]] tends to have a lot of these. Given the Posleen kill counts though, the kids are probably better off than otherwise.

* There's a short story which details the journey of a group of children on the Children's Crusade. As history tells, it does not end well, which makes their optimism that God will favor their cause once they reach Jerusalem to be rather a [[Tear Jerker]]. Fortunately, the narrator had been a werewolf since birth (he joined the Crusade in the hopes of God freeing him from his curse) and the night they're delivered to Egypt as slaves happens to be just the same night as the full moon...