It seems that Chris Soule's The Oracle Year was everywhere. It was a pick for the Book of the Month Club, and also on every other piece of advertisement that flashed across my computer screen whenever I was on either Goodreads or Facebook. Add an interesting premise to its near constant presence, and I was ultimately convinced to give it a go. Plus, there is my ever present need for accessible science fiction to include on this blog.The Situation: Will Dando is a struggling musician living in Manhattan, and for reasons unknown to him, he has been given 108 predictions about the world. Coming to him in his sleep, the predictions range from the seemingly mundane to downright world-altering. After looking into a few of them and seeing that they did indeed come true, Will decides to trust his best friend, Hamza, and tell him everything. With a great talent for money and numbers, Hamza helps Will in selling some of the predictions to the highest bidder, while making sure no one can trace Will or where the money has gone. But the Site is what gets the public's attention: a website where Will occasionally posts a few chosen predictions. It is the thing that gains him the nickname of the Oracle, and causes a worldwide interest in who the Oracle is and where he or she got their information.
The Problem: Being the Oracle has gained Will some incredibly powerful enemies, even though they do not know his real identity or even where to start looking for him. Among those who wish to find the Oracle are an incredibly powerful televangelist, and the President of the United States. The former has all but painted the Oracle as the Antichrist, and the latter wishes to bring in the person who clearly has some information that would be useful to the United States government, and can potentially alter world events. But beyond this, being the Oracle and having access to this kind of information may be more than Will can handle. Even with Hamza's ability to make them both very rich, Will cannot handle the negative consequences brought on by what he has put out onto the site, and Hamza's constant insistence that the predictions should mostly be used to make them even richer aren't helping. But before he can figure out what he should do or what is ultimately going on, things begin spiraling out of control at an alarming rate, and Will's attempt to stay ahead of things only serves to show him that he is almost always behind.
Genre, Theme, History: I have chosen the heading of science fiction for this book if only because it is set in the near future and includes an unknown force that not only knows what will happen, but can clearly communicate minute details about it to seemingly anyone. There is nothing special or unique about Will Dando. He does not have a special power, is a fairly talented bass player, does not have great connections, and does not have a whole lot to recommend himself to anyone with real influence, certainly not a power that knows the future. But this power chose him, and more than that, this power is also able to manipulate seemingly the smallest actions to do what it wants, including make sure the predictions it gave Will come true. It does not take too long for Will to begin to wonder if his life is his own, or has his free will been hijacked. And of course, being someone who knows the future gains Will his fair share of followers, and enemies. With a third-person omniscient narrator, Soule lets the reader see the situation from multiple perspectives, and everyone has their own reason for wanting access to the Oracle. Most want money or power, many want safety and assurance of the future, but quite a few want to be able to keep hold of the power they have managed to grab. It is a narrative that challenges the reasons we hold onto things and what we think we get out of them.
My Verdict: The book's description promised a story that would not be predictable, and on that front, it most certainly delivered. It was impossible to know where the story was going next, even when it seemed incredibly clear that there was only a few directions it could go. While some of the twists and turns did feel somewhat forced and convenient, for the most part, they made sense as part of the bigger story and added to the mysterious element behind the power the provided Will with the predictions. Perhaps my main contention with the book was Will's ability to continually make terrible choices, while other characters continually made selfish ones. And if there was one thing about the story that was predictable it was concerning where most of the characters would end up, even though how they got there was still a riddle without an obvious answer.
Favorite Moment: When the President's Chief of Staff was bested by a semi-retired grandmother known for her ability to carry out the most difficult of missions.
Favorite Character: This is a little bit difficult as most of the characters were hard to like, and not all that complex. The one exception would be Hamza's wife Miko. Where Hamza is greedy, Miko is practical. Where Hamza is quick to ignite, Miko can stay calm while seeing things clearly and acting accordingly.
Recommended Reading: If you want more or a fantasy element to predictions of the future and grabs at power, I recommend The Sea of Ink and Gold series by Traci Chee, which so far includes The Reader and The Speaker, with the third and final book due to be published this fall.
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