The Oracle Year

“It was like trying to play chess in a pitch-dark room, where you had to determine your opponent's moves by sense of smell alone. And you had a cold. And your opponent was God.”
― Charles Soule, The Oracle Year

How can 108 predictions destroy the world? In a wildly exciting and entertaining way. The real question is whether that world can be born anew from the ashes?

The Oracle Year is the story of Will Dando, struggling bassist and all around regular guy who happens upon 108 prophecies. He received in a dream. With the help of his Best friend Hamza, they create an anonymous website and release the prophesies slowly to the world, allowing each of them time to come true. What happens, is what always happens in a story when someone has ultimate power. The real forces in the world want that power and will do everything to get it back. It's a fascinating thought experiment. What would you do if you knew what was going to happen? Would you try to make money? Would you try to save the world, or would you decide to change the world? Soule does an excellent job of making Will into a real character with real decisions and choices. Will isn't brilliant, he's a dude who likes music, and as the story progresses, Will's personality changes and makes choices that the reader won't see coming. As does the side characters Hamza and Miko. Characters grow and change, and it is well done. As much as I enjoyed Will, I think in most of the scenes where Hamza played Will's foil, Hamza stole the show. Hamza is both Honda is both clever and intelligent in ways Will is not, and I enjoyed the pairing of these two.

“None of us are meant for anything, and none of us are meant for nothing. Life is chaos, but it's also an opportunity, risk, and how you manage them.”
― Charles Soule, The Oracle Year

I know that Comic fans of Soules previous work in Star Wars and Red Devil will enjoy the style in which this story is written. It's a very approachable book. It's exciting, interesting, and sophisticated and I very much enjoyed it. Even though it started a little bit slow the narrative style and the dialogue style picked up and became thrilling. Although there are familiar tropes sprinkled throughout the story it still is a very original concept I think that anybody who checks it out will enjoy it. I am glad I picked this story up on a lark and gave it a chance, and I hope you will too.

What happens when 1 person gets 108 pieces of information about the next year? That's the promise or Oracle Year. What I appreciated about the story was how well the story followed what someone would do with that knowledge in today's electronic age - with parts dark web, corporate profit and government intrigue.