As Good as Dead in Downtown

Kai, Phoebe and Phoenix all share modified genes that enable them to swim for many minutes at a time underwater. In the future world of Nebula and Portobello this is particularly useful, as tsunami or storm waves and eventual flooding threaten the countries. Kai, though he knows he can survive underwater for longer than others, does not know his genes have been modified. He lives as a hired assassin on the rough streets of Portobello.

Kai meets sister and brother Phoebe and Phoenix when he is hired by the Nebulese secret police to track them down; they have escaped from their protected compound in Nebula and come to Portobello to make a new life. While Phoenix dies in the ferocious whirlpool known as Medusa, Kai becomes friends with Phoebe and they plan an audacious escape from Portobello by riding on the rebound wave of the next storm wave.

As Good as Dead in Downtown is as breathtaking as the body surfing around which Kai plans his escape. Arksey has written a thriller that feels real, with the bustling Portobellan market, militia hunting Portobellan freedom fighters and a few key characters such as Kai’s friend Clod and his father. The activities of the freedom fighters offer parallels to suicide bombers in the Middle East and sometimes feel too close to recent terrorist events. Phoenix’s portrayal as more bloodthirsty than Phoebe originally believes is a neat contrast to Kai, the trained assassin who feels sick when he hears the Earth trembling and knows it signifies death. Some readers might like the relationship between Phoebe and Kai to be further developed but Arksey has kept tightly and gratifyingly to the confines of his thriller genre.