Dead Water Zone - Softcover

Oppel, Kenneth

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0006485618 ISBN 13: 9780006485612

Publisher: HarperTrophy, 2004

Synopsis

Hot on the heels of Kenneth Oppel’s latest blockbuster, Airborn, comes the mass market release of Dead Water Zone, a gripping science-fiction thriller, perfect for its young adult audience.

Set in the very near future, in a world where the haves and have nots are segregated by their neighbourhood’s level of environmental degradation, Dead Water Zone is the haunting story of 15-year-old Paul, who leaves his orderly suburban home to search for his younger brother, Sam. Sam has disappeared in the murky slum of Watertown, and Paul believes that he knows something dangerous about the toxic waters surrounding the shantytown.Can Paul find out the truth? Or does the dead water zone devour everyone who dares to enter it?

Oppel’s sensitive characterization and treatment of adolescent rivalry, love and self-worth enhance this action-packed, totally satisfying story. Dead Water Zone will capture a brand-new adolescent audience.

About this title

About the Author:

KENNETH OPPEL wrote his first novel at age fourteen and hasn’t looked back. His books include the Silverwing series, which has sold over a million copies around the world; Airborn, winner of a Governor General’s Award and the Michael L. Printz Award; and his latest, Inkling, which the New York Times called “astonishing.” Ken Oppel lives with his family in Toronto. You can find him online at kennethoppel.ca and on Twitter at @kennethoppel.

 

From Kirkus Reviews:

A well-realized world of rotting docks and ramshackle buildings on the shore of a polluted lake forms the setting for this haunting character study. Summoned by his brilliant but frail brother Sam, Paul leaves his comfortable suburban neighborhood for unsavory Watertown--and finds that both he and his brother are being hunted by the quasi-legal Cityweb: Sam has discovered a mutated microorganism in the lake that, though eventually toxic, greatly enhances physical ability. But despite plenty of danger, narrow scrapes, and a lurid, violent climax, outward events seem almost incidental compared to Paul's inner struggles. Once complacent in his role as protective older brother, he's angry to see Sam growing up and away from him and racked by guilt to feel so; his turmoil increases when he meets a new Sam--preternaturally fast and strong, exultantly freed from his former metabolic disorder. Oppel explores the brothers' dependent love-hate relationship with some sensitivity, though the confessional tone gets heavy at times. Glamorous but deadly, the microorganism is like a drug, so the story can be read on that level, too; indeed, Oppel adds a subplot involving a streetwise young Watertowner searching for her lake water-addicted mother. A thoughtful story with an unusual combination of ingredients. (Fiction. 12+) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperTrophy
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0006485618
• ISBN 13: 9780006485612
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 204