'Althea struggles to adapt to an unexpected twist in her life—not being kidnapped in six whole months. The strange police from the faraway city claim the abilities she thought of as magic are really ‘psionics,’ and say she is far stronger than anyone they have ever seen. Despite their curiosity, they let her remain in the Badlands to protect her from an evil they call corporations.
'Of course, Althea knows all too well how powerful her healing gift is. For most of her life, she’d been a prize taken in raids. Tribes have killed to own her, and she let them. But the Prophet is done being passive. Having a family changes everything. No longer afraid to use her powers to protect herself, Althea refuses to be taken again… even when corporate mercenaries find her.'
Prophet's Journey was something of a difficult book for me to review. When I was offered it it was marketed as the first book in a series, one set in a post-apocalyptic future. It all sounded interesting, and I thought that I was set to delve into this new world. The thing that I found tripping me up several times whilst reading the book, however, was the fact that whilst this is the first of a new series, it's a series that spins out of an existing six book set.
I'm not sure how much of The Awakened series you have to read to get to know Althea and her history, from what I gather the series has multiple protagonists so it's possible that she is only one small part of that series. The biggest issue I found wasn't not knowing about Althea's past or the set-up to her world, as much of this is easily explained during the book; no, what kept drawing me out of the story was when she mentions specific events or people. These were often in relation to something that was happening their and then in the book, something simple, but something that reminded her of a past event. Whilst this kind of thing isn't usually an issue for me, Althea was coming out with names of characters I didn't know so often I felt like I was a little ill-equipped to be reading Prophet's Journey.
Now, I want to make this clear that this isn't a criticism of the book or Matthew S. Cox and his style of writing, but was something that I personally had trouble with. If you've read the other books of his set in this world then I'm sure these references and callbacks would not only be fine, but probably enjoyable. And even if you haven't read the previous books, you might not have the same trouble that I did. I think this is purely down to me. That aside, the book is really good, and tells a good story about a super powered young girl in something of a nightmare future well.
The book begins with Althea living with an adoptive family in a relatively peaceful settlement, and the troubles of her past seemingly over. She's no longer being hunted by various tribal groups or gangs who want to worship her or keep her prisoner for her powers, and in some cases both. She's still getting used to this new way of life, and it very quickly becomes clear how much she's missed out on because of her troubled past when you see how innocent and simple she is. She's not had the education that a lot of people have, and struggles to understand reading and writing, and whilst she's been exposed to some awful things, seems to be completely lost with simple, basic life.
This makes Althea something of an innocent and sheltered narrator, and we see several times over the course of the book that this can lead to some strange results. She can appear naive and dare i say 'stupid' to some people who think that they know better than her simply because they understand the world a bit better, whilst other times her wide eyed innocence can help to melt the hearts of some who wouldn't usually want much to do with her. There are even a few moments where her way of being adds some small humour into what could otherwise be a quite dark and depressing world.
Along her journey Althea meets several interesting characters, some of whom stay with her for longer than others. These include former bandits, subway dwellers who worship old companies and their logos, synthetic people, and even a ghost. Each of these people brings something new into the mix, and helps Althea learn a little more about not just the world around her, but what it means to be a person.
Despite this being a story about a girl trying to get back to her family it's also a story about growth. It shows a young girl who's barely more than a child, and exposes her to new dangers and new ways of thinking. It shows her how other people live and survive in this big, frightening world and helps to inform her own way of thinking, without needing her to give up on her innocence and willingness to try and help people.
Prophet's Journey is an interesting post-apocalypse world, one that seems to merge science fiction and fantasy well, and gives readers a fun and lovable protagonist to show it to us through.
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