Devil's Pocket - by John Dixon (Paperback)

About the Book

With a chip in his head and hundreds more throughout his body, sixteen-year-old Carl Freeman was turned from an orphan with impulse control issues into a super-soldier. Forced into the mercenary Phoenix Force group, he begins to fear he'll never escape. Sent to a volcanic island to fight for them, he'll compete in a combat tournament that awards teens with survival for merciless brutality. But just when all looks lost, he spies a friendly face... and possibly a way out.

Book Synopsis

The follow-up to the critically acclaimed Phoenix Island, which reads like "Lord of the Flies meets Wolverine and Cool Hand Luke" (F. Paul Wilson, creator of Repairman Jack) and inspired the CBS TV show Intelligence.With a chip in his head and hundreds more throughout his body, sixteen-year-old Carl Freeman was turned from an orphan with impulse control issues into a super-soldier. Forced into the mercenary Phoenix Force group, he begins to fear he'll never escape. Sent to a volcanic island to fight for them, he'll compete in a combat tournament that awards teens with survival for merciless brutality. But just when all looks lost, he spies a friendly face...and possibly a way out.

Review Quotes

In Stoker-winner Dixon's adrenaline-infused sequel to 2014's Phoenix Island, 16-year-old Carl Freeman, now a highly trained fighter implanted with body-enhancing microchips, is part of a three-man team representing Phoenix Island, which is ruled by the tyrannical Stark, in the Funeral Games, "an annual underground tournament held at an undisclosed location and hosted by the Few, a small group of enormously wealthy elitists who happen to love blood sport." Each participant will fight four bouts in four days. The winner of each weight class will receive $10 million. The games turn out to be on an island called Devil's Pocket, where Carl, who's posing as a loyal Stark supporter, is startled to encounter Margarita Carbajal, whom he knew as Octavia, his love interest, in the previous book. Octavia and Carl join forces in a desperate attempt to destroy Stark and the Few. A former Golden Gloves boxer, Dixon combines futuristic technical advances with graphic fight scenes for a satisfying adventure thriller.