Being the hardcore fantasy fan that I am, I generally stray away from science Fic (even if I love all the ones that I read :S). However as I love most of Garth Nix's books and own pretty much everyone I had to read Shade's Children.
It's a very original plot and is written in a strange way that I haven't seen before (in the form of 3rd person documenting the movements of mainly the main character Gold Eye, diary entry's from various other characters and thoughts and feelings of the books Antogonist/Protagonist Shade).
I have managed to read this book at least four times =]
Similarly I have read the Supernaturalists by irish author Eoin Colfer (who wrote the popular series Artemis Fowl) many many times. This was strange as I have so far only been able to read one of the Artemis Fowl books as I get so bored XD.
So in my eyes this is a stellar read. It also is set in the future and also documents the travelings of a small band of children and teenagers. The world created in this book was very well written and exactly what you would expect to see in the future. The machinery and new inventions were really ingenious and I would never have imagined such things myself.
So if I were you, I'd try to read both sometime!