The Oracle Year

108 predictions come to Will Dando in a dream, but what he does with them will change the world forever. In this fast-paced Book of the Month Club pick by comic book writer Charles Soule, you’ll meet The Oracle, his closest friends, a fire and brimstone televangelist, the president of the United States and his FBI director, and a kind-looking old woman named The Coach who could have you killed in the blink of an eye. Everyone in the world wants to know who the Oracle is, but not everyone has good intentions for his predictions.

Here’s the Amazon blurb:

From bestselling comic-book franchise writer Charles Soule comes a clever and witty first novel of a twentysomething New Yorker who wakes up one morning with the power to predict the future—perfect for fans of Joe Hill and Brad Meltzer, or books like This Book Is Full of Spiders and Welcome to Night Vale.

Knowledge is power. So when an unassuming Manhattan bassist named Will Dando awakens from a dream one morning with 108 predictions about the future in his head, he rapidly finds himself the most powerful man in the world. Protecting his anonymity by calling himself the Oracle, he sets up a heavily guarded Web site with the help of his friend Hamza to selectively announce his revelations. In no time, global corporations are offering him millions for exclusive access, eager to profit from his prophecies.

He’s also making a lot of high-powered enemies, from the President of the United States and a nationally prominent televangelist to a warlord with a nuclear missile and an assassin grandmother. Legions of cyber spies are unleashed to hack the Site—as it’s come to be called—and the best manhunters money can buy are deployed not only to unmask the Oracle but to take him out of the game entirely. With only a handful of people he can trust—including a beautiful journalist—it’s all Will can do to simply survive, elude exposure, and protect those he loves long enough to use his knowledge to save the world.

Delivering fast-paced adventure on a global scale as well as sharp-witted satire on our concepts of power and faith, Marvel writer Charles Soule’s audacious debut novel takes readers on a rollicking ride where it’s impossible to predict what will happen next.

Overall, I thought this was a fun read. I listened to the audiobook, enjoyed the narration, and was constantly enraptured by the story. It didn’t feel too comic-book-like to me, but since I don’t really read them, who am I to say? It was well-written and while the conceit may be straight from a comic book (I just love speculative fiction) it was still gripping and well-told. I actually didn’t pick this as one of my book of the month club picks for April, but I saw the audiobook on Hoopla and devoured it. Now I’ve read this and not any of my actual BOTM picks for April. Whoops.

The way the predictions connected and the people met was well-done and handled by Soule expertly. He’s clearly used to tying these loose ends together.  I genuinely enjoyed this book and I’m glad it’s a standalone and he’s not trying to do a Will Dando series, because this book was nicely contained and should not be messed with. Here’s hoping to more from this author in the fiction section though.