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    The Oracle Year: A Novel
    The Oracle Year: A Novel
    The Oracle Year: A Novel
    Audiobook12 hours

    The Oracle Year: A Novel

    Written by Charles Soule

    Narrated by Charlie Thurston

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    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 listeners on a rollicking ride where it's impossible to predict what will happen next.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateApr 3, 2018
    ISBN9780062799562
    The Oracle Year: A Novel
    Author

    Charles Soule

    Charles Soule is a New York Times-bestselling, Brooklyn-based comic book writer, musician, and attorney. He is best known for writing Daredevil, She-Hulk, Death of Wolverine and various Star Wars comics from Marvel Comics, as well as his creator-owned series Curse Words from Image Comics and the award-winning political sci-fi epic Letter 44 from Oni Press.

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    Reviews for The Oracle Year

    4/5

    237 ratings17 reviews

    What did you think?

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      I think this was a good book but technical difficulties prevented me finishing the entire book. It continually skipped chapters throughout and then skipped to the end about 3/4 of the way through so I guess I am finished?

      1 person found this helpful

    • 2/5
      boring drawns out and not at all what i expected
    • 3/5
      I felt that this book had a lot of potential but it just never really came together. A lot of questions were left unanswered, and the story just sort of dragged on.
    • 4/5
      Good plot and characters. Would make a good movie or series and I know exactly who should play the Coach.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      This is simply one of the best novels I've ever read. An amazing story, beautifully crafted and impeccably told from a writer at the top of his craft. Supremely recommended!

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      9780525620792
    • 4/5
      Original story, 3.5 stars. If wasn’t for the middle which just seemed to drag on and on, this would be bumped to 4-4.5.
    • 4/5
      4.5 stars - what an exhilarating ride Charles Soule!
    • 3/5
      This wasn’t a bad novel, but I didn’t like it as much as the author’s other novel, Anyone. It was interesting, and the storyline and plot kept me going through to the ending, but I wasn’t as wowed with this novel as I was the other one. Oh well...
      Charlie Thurston is the narrator, and he was very good also.

      3 stars, and recommended.
    • 3/5
      Will Dando, a New Yorker who plays bass guitar, is essentially just a regular guy who blends in with everyone else. Until one day he wakes up with memories of having dreamed a list of 108 future predictions. He begins to gradually release these predictions to the public, anonymously through a website, and when they all begin to come true, he becomes known as "The Oracle". While some see him as a prophet, others are convinced that his predictions will lead to nothing but trouble. And either way, everyone wants to know who he is.I was anxious to read this after seeing a review somewhere. It sounded intriguing and has been billed as a sci-fi thriller. And the basic premise makes it sound as such. But I have to say I was ultimately disappointed in this one. The characters were flat, the story line was not very fluid at times, and the writing was just mediocre. I did consider bailing midway through on several occasions, but I persevered. I was hoping the ending might be redeeming, but it wasn't. It, too, was flat and unoriginal. This wasn't a terrible book, but it could've been so much more. And ultimately, I really just didn't care what happened -- I was just ready for it to end.
    • 4/5
      Small-time musician Will Dando wakes up one day with 108 predictions of the future inexplicably in his head and quickly discovers that all of them are coming true, even the ones that he tries to prevent. With the help of a business-savvy friend, he soon makes a lot of cash selling information about the future, but then events set in motion by the predictions begin to spiral off in directions he never could have predicted.It's funny. Almost the entire time I was reading this book, I was thinking of things to be critical of. The writing is unexceptional and a little too full of "As you know, Bob" dialog. Tons of ridiculous stuff happens, and I'm genuinely not sure whether it's meant to be satirical or we're meant to take it all seriously. Soule is primarily a writer of comics, apparently, and he may just be bringing some of the slightly over-the-top, larger-than-life sensibilities of superhero comics to the story, but they may not work quite as well here as in the comics.And, above and beyond all of that, the story touches on all kinds of potentially really interesting philosophical territory involving free will, the nature of time, and the interconnectedness of things in ways that seem like they could have provided good fodder for a much more serious, more meaty, more grounded story than this. Sure, it's fun, I thought to myself, but maybe it's a waste to use a setup like this one on something that feels... well, a little bit silly.But you know what? The truth is, this is fun. It was a really fast, entertaining read with a good premise, and, having shut the book on the last page, I find myself wanting to wave away all those criticisms and just think about how much I enjoyed it. The fact that it avoided giving us the ending I was dreading, in which all is explained and the explanation is stupid, helped with that, too. Plus, I give Soule extra points for giving us some elderly women as significant, competent characters in roles that you never get to see old ladies in. (Old men, yes. Young and beautiful women, yes. But never old ladies. And there really should be more awesome old ladies in fiction.)Rating: What the heck. I'm going to go with my gut instead of my brain and give this a 4/5. Shut up, brain.
    • 4/5
      This is a moderately entertaining novel with an interesting premise. A struggling musician in New York City has a dream, in which he is provided with 108 events which will occur in the near future. Some of these predictions are incredibly mundane, while others are potentially very lucrative. Who provided these looks into the future? What would you do if you had possession of these items? What impact would revelation have on world finance and politics? As I said, this is moderately entertaining, easily and quickly read.
    • 4/5
      A real edge of your seat kind of book which is a total page turner. The Oracle has 108 predictions as a dream and they are not necessarily good news. Seems like the world is about to implode from all the bad stuff happening. He helps to save the day at the end.
    • 4/5
      I thought this was a solidly good book which looks at what happens as a result of one man knowing for certain that events are going to happen. Charles Soule wrote a Big Idea post on John Scalzi's blog and it hooked me. Here's part of what he had to say in it:"We make decisions based on our analysis of the future – lots of them. We constantly predict what will happen next on timelines short and long. We have to. It’s the only way to operate, to live. We’re all prophets, in other words, predicting the arc of our lives moment to moment....We’re all, on a very fundamental level, optimists. After all, if we weren’t, we’d never do anything at all. " That seems pretty straight forward but what Mr. Soule does with those thoughts takes the reader into pretty interesting territory.Will Dando is a pretty good bass player living in New York City just barely getting by with the gigs he plays. He is in his twenties and he is just starting to realize that while he is a good musician he is not a great musician, or at least not New York City great. Then one morning he wakes up from a dream with a list of 108 predictions about the future. Some are big events but some are small and they just seem to be random. Will has to decide firstly if these really are true predictions and then what to do with them. He is pretty soon convinced they are true and then he convinces his best friend Hamza, a stock broker, to quit his job and help him work on these predictions. They release some on a secure web site called The Oracle and add that they know more. Pretty soon Will and Hamza have more money than they know what to do with and they could just sail off into the sunset. Except there are still predictions that Will has not released and he is worried that whoever sent the predictions to him is using the turn of events to bring death and destruction to the world. Then there's the fact that the US government is hunting for him and so are a bunch of believers from a right wing church. Will has to stay ahead of all of these people who are unlikely to wish him well. Hamza's wife, Miko, gets involved and her contributions to figuring out all the connections between events are valuable. She is also much more diplomatic that either Will or Hamza. When Will decides they need more help he agrees to an interview with Leigh Shore, a junior reporter on a news website who did an early favourable piece about The Oracle. Leigh is a gutsy woman and she decides to take the interview as far as it will go, which is pretty far.We never do find out who sent these predictions to Will which is a pretty big item to leave hanging unless there is a sequel planned. I'll be watching.
    • 4/5
      Will Dando is barely getting by in New York living from gig to gig playing as a bassist. One night he has a dream where he receives 108 predictions about the future and before he knows it he has become the most powerful man in the world. He has become the Oracle. Will and his close friend Hamza have set up a heavily secured website, affectionately known as the Site, to selectively release some of the predictions to the public. The world is instantly captivated as each prediction comes true. Soon Will and Hamza are being inundated with questions people want the Oracle to answer: What are the lottery numbers? Who will win the Superbowl?Life for Will Dando quickly escalates as he feels the pressure of his new-found fame. Large corporations want to pay him millions of dollars just to ask him 10 minutes worth of questions with the hope that he’ll have the answer to one that will make them even richer. At the same time, Will is gaining quite a few high-powered enemies including a televangelist, a warlord, and an assassin grandmother. As the Site’s popularity draws the attention of hackers around the world Will must work to hide his identity. With only a handful of people he can trust can Will survive the masses of people trying to find him?Typically I keep my science fiction reading to my graphic novel and comic selections. When I saw that Charles Soule was releasing his debut novel I figured what better opportunity to give reading science fiction a try than when it’s mixed with a mystery/thrilled aspect? Soule and THE ORACLE YEAR did not disappoint! I was instantly drawn to the main character, Will Dando, and wanted to know more about him, his plans, and of course those precious predictions he had. Soule masterfully creates a multi-dimensional story by weaving alternating storylines together. The reader is given looks directly in on Will and a handful of his enemies. These storylines create an exciting experience and before you know it you’re already halfway through the book! I cannot wait for Soule to write more novels and I’ll definitely be snagging a few additional comics from his list of works on my next trip to the comic book store!A special thank you to Wunderkind PR and Harper Perennial for providing me a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!
    • 4/5
      If it's done well, sometimes it's okay to leave a few questions unanswered and Soule did it very well. The "who" and the "why" were ultimately far less important than Will's journey.

      And, yes, I know that tells you fuck-all about the book itself, but you can read the synopsis and anything more I could say would be inadequate in describing it. If you enjoyed Dark Matter or All Our Wrong Todays or are a fan of Mr. Soule's comics work, you'll probably enjoy this book. It starts out as one thing, but ends up being something very different. I stayed up way past my bedtime to finish it because I had no idea where it was going and I needed to find out.

      That being said, though, it often feels like it may have started life as an idea for a comics series that just got too much for that format. There are passages that read like panel descriptions, which definitely helps with the visuals, but created a bit of readerly vertigo for me.
    • 4/5
      Will Dando has a dream one night. In it he us given 108 predictions some of which seem important and some which make no sense at the time. With no more information on what he is supposed to do with them. He decides to post some online and some he sells for astronomical prices. Which then starts a cascade of events he could not have predicted and puts himself and his closest friends in jeopardy. Such a great premise that plays out so well! This is comic writer Charles Soule's first novel. I am a fan of his comics and he has made the move to novels without a hitch.