Prophet by Sin Blaché and Helen Macdonald

Prophet by Sin Blaché, Helen Macdonald
Narrator: Jake Fairbrother, Ryan Forde Iosco, Charlotte Davey
Published by Recorded Books on August 15, 2023
Source: NetGalley
Genres: Science Fiction
Length: 17 hrs 1 min
Pages: 529
Format: Audiobook
Purchase at Bookshop.org or Audible
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From the extraordinary minds of award-winning and New York Times –bestselling author of H Is for Hawk Helen Macdonald and first time author Sin Blaché, Prophet is their electric debut, a tantalizing adventure fusing noir, sci-fi and a slow burn queer romance—set in a universe just one perilous step from our own.

Adam Rubenstein and Sunil Rao have been reluctant partners since their Uzbekistan days. Adam is a seemingly unflappable American Intelligence officer and Rao is an ex-MI6 agent, an addict and rudderless pleasure hound, with the uncanny ability to discern the truth of things—about everyone and everything other than Adam. When an American diner turns up in a foggy field in the UK after a mysterious death, Adam and Rao are called in to investigate, setting into motion the most dangerous and otherworldly mission of their lives.

In a surreal, action-packed quest that takes Adam and Rao from secret laboratories in Colorado, to a luxury lodge in Aspen, to the remote Nevada desert, the pair begins to uncover how and why people’s fondest memories are being weaponized against them by a spooky, ever-shifting substance called Prophet. As the unlikely twosome battles this strange new reality, Prophet’s victims’ memories are materializing in increasingly bizarre favorite games, beloved pets, fairground rides, each more malevolent than the next. Prophet is like no enemy Adam and Rao - or the world - have ever come up against.

A tension-shot odd-couple romance, an unflinching send-up of corporate corruption, and a genre-bending tour de force, Prophet is a triumph of storytelling by a new writing duo with a thrilling future.

I loved about 80% of Prophet. It’s a slightly creepy sci-fi thriller with a slow-burn romance between the two leads. The end kind of went off the rails for me, but I liked Rao and Adam enough for it not to matter. Wonder if they could get a sequel?

Prophet is set circa 2010, in more or less our world, but a sergeant has died in a mysterious fire on a US base in the UK. Around the base, dozens of objects appeared ranging from familiar, nostalgic childhood toys, to a full American-style diner in the middle of an empty field. Enter Adam, a surly American military officer, and Rao, a sort of ex-MI6 spy pulled out of rehab who can tell what’s true, whether it be if something’s real and not a forgery or if a statement is true – a power that conveniently doesn’t work where Adam’s concerned. It’s up to them to figure out what’s going on. Oh, and neither of them is affected by Prophet in the same as 99% of the rest of the population – surprise.

Rao and Adam have a history, as becomes apparent as the book progresses. Under the sarcasm and insults, they clearly care about each other. They do, both in their own ways, go over the line to downright mean, which I’m not a giant fan of, but does fit their personalities and backstories.

The plot is interesting, even if I wasn’t a huge fan of how part of it was resolved. The book, in a lot of ways, was more about Rao and Adam’s relationship than the potentially apocalyptic Prophet.

I listened to the audio and while I don’t usually like multiple narrators, it worked well here. I was able to keep track of whose viewpoint we were seeing things from. The narrators did a great job at pulling out the characters’ personalities, too.