Oracle by Susan Boulton

Oracle by Susan Boulton

Kindle Edition

Published March 2015 by Tickety Boo Press

Susan Boulton and I are internet, writer-friends. Over the years, I’ve read many of her stories. They are always well written, insightful, and entertaining. Oracle is no different.

Set in a world much like 18th Century Britain, Oracle tells the story of a young woman used by the goddess, religious zealots, and political parties during a time of societal upheaval.

The story begins with the Oracle, or Claire when she’s herself, an embodiment or conduit of the goddess. The Oracle has the ability to see the possible future, but only in confusing glimpses. Thus, an oracle is sometimes called a Glimpser. These Glimpsers are a made thing. Something divined through the goddess at the request of a special order of the faith.

When Claire is turned into a Glimpser and the thing she becomes names itself Oracle, the world around her changes is ways that threaten not only her existence, but the stability of an entire nation.

The plot is centered around Pugh Avinguard, Claire’s (former) husband. We follow him through a terrible train accident, that presumably Oracle caused, and where he meets up, briefly, with his former wife. Though they can not communicate directly because she is caught up in Oracle’s mental whirlwind, Pugh still feels a connection with Claire and cares for her – during which he listens to her precognition rantings.

It’s not exactly advantageous to heed the predictions of a Glimpser. The words and phrases the Glimpser offers are taken out of context and could mean just about anything. Oracle often mentions a ‘good man’ or ‘light on water’ or any number of phrases that could mean anything or nothing. It’s perplexing and many caution against using the words of a Glimpser.

Except those of the Inner Circle – a religious cult that works secretly to create more Glimpsers in the hopes of resurrecting the power of their original Seer.

A military man, Avinguard is tasked with protecting a rising politician, Lord Joshua Calvinward, during a time when new legislation controlling worker’s rights is pushing through the High Forum, this world’s version of a parliament. This new bill has the potential to “turn the world on its head”.

Similar to our world and Britain’s historic labor issues, the nobles and business elites enjoy their riches at the expense of workers. No better than slaves, bond contract workers are housed in, essentially, slum tenements and work under horrendous conditions. While this part of Oracle’s world was only touched on, readers do get a chance to experience the worker’s lives through the eyes of a character aiming to change their worker’s plight.

We then have Carter, the religious zealot who aims to capture the Glimpser who has named herself. Thought to be a portent to something greater, Carter is working under vague direction of a not-so-secret religious order to use Oracle for their own purposes.

Through all this is woven Pugh’s tale of losing and finding his wife once again.

Overall, I very much enjoyed Oracle. The action is well thought out and the characters well realized. The writing is clear and each scene is vivid in my mind. While the tale is set in a society where women do not hold as much power as men, the Ladies of this story do not sit back idle, watching the men get all the action. On the contrary, they immerse themselves into the thick of all the political intrigue and may even surprise you with how far they will go to reach their goals.

My major fault with the book is the tendency of the author to head-hop. I’m not against multiple character viewpoints, however, I like it when character transitions are well defined by chapter breaks or some other sectional break. Otherwise, I get a bit confused and have to re-read passage to figure out who’s thinking what. There were enough of those confusing moments in Oracle for me to notice and I did get a bit annoyed, especially at the very end where I would have liked to stay with Pugh and Claire just a little bit longer.

If ‘head-hopping’ doesn’t bother you, then I fully recommend this book if you like political machinations mixed with religion and the supernatural. This is a fine debut by Susan Boulton and I look forward to seeing more of her work in print.

N. E. White, June, 2015.