SuitabookAs Good as Dead in Downtown
Neil Arksey
- Reading
- If the reader is comfortable with intense action, read in short sections and pause after major deaths or revelations. Afterwards, separate what characters choose from what powerful institutions force upon them.
- Themes
- Freedom under powerful rule: Portobello is under Nebula’s powerful rule; Kai, Phoebe and Phoenix become involved in escape, pursuit and resistance. The book’s stance on this remains unclear.
- Science, identity and bodily control: Kai, Phoebe and Phoenix have modified genes, and Phoebe and Phoenix escape from a protected compound or laboratory where experimentation takes place. The book’s stance on this remains unclear.
- Violence and moral conflict: Kai is trained or employed as an assassin; militia hunt freedom fighters; Phoenix is described as bloodthirsty and dies during the escape. Violence is central to the danger, yet Kai’s sickness and distress around death complicate a simple heroic reading of his role.
- Worth knowing
- Give particular attention to death and danger: Phoenix dies in a ferocious whirlpool, Kai works as a hired assassin, and militia and terrorist-like violence are discussed. The flood and storm-wave escape also create sustained peril.