Delphi Chronicles
Dystopias
April 11, 2016
460
What if I told you you'd be dead in a year? That a food corporation would experiment with genetic modification, and nearly destroy the human race. Would you believe me? Sounds crazy, right? Because nobody can see the future. Nobody but me. And what I see isn't pretty. A dystopian wasteland. Bodies rotting to nothing in the streets. Humans on the brink of survival. The wilderness eating away at what used to be my hometown. A shadow organization rounding up children. Bands of warring tribes. And let's not forget the modifieds - the zombie-like remains of what used to be the human race. Civilization is destroyed. There is no chance to undo the damage. No one can save the world... except me. Because for me, it hasn't even happened yet. For me, it might never happen. The only thing is, the more time I spend in the future, the less I want to erase it. Stopping the future might break me... I'd be erasing a face, a smile, that I never want to forget. This is Part One of Prescient, a dystopian time-travel based on the Oracle of Delphi.
Prescient was an exciting book, and I enjoyed reading it. The characters were engaging and the plot was unique. I’ll try to keep this vague to avoid spoilers, but some discussion of the book will involve some spoilers – be warned!
There was an appropriate amount of teenage angst built into the characters; although I personally don’t like angst, it wasn’t overboard. This could be considered a young adult book, but it didn’t strike me as over-simplified or too cutesy (which I hate in young adult books). The plot was deep and dark and exciting, but nothing too intense for a 14-year-old.
The romance angle was done well, and was pretty innocent for the most part. Much more emotional and angsty than physical, which, again, is appropriate for the ages of the characters.
A few decisions by the main character (Alicia) bothered me. First, I feel like she should have told her dad what was going on. He was obviously involved to a certain degree because of the riddled history that unfolds over the course of the book. I feel as though he would have believed Alicia and could have helped. At the very least it would have gotten them on the same page so that he wasn’t worried about Alicia getting into drugs or other imaginary dangers. Perhaps I’m being naive, though, being a parent and feeling like he could have helped.
Another irritating decision is that Alicia ignores a couple of her own warnings to herself. If I found a note from myself saying “Don’t trust so-and-so” I’d try to get to the bottom of it ASAP, and I certainly wouldn’t trust so-and-so! Irritating, but perhaps in-character for Alicia.
Anyway, the book was good, and a quick read. By the time I was about 88% through the book I was irritated about a couple plot points, but I had no problem zipping through the end of the book. As others have said, it is a bit of a cliffhanger. I hope the next one comes out soon, or else the plotline will fade off into memory.