The Oracle Betrayed (Oracle Prophecies) - Hardcover

Fisher, Catherine

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060571578 ISBN 13: 9780060571573

Publisher: Greenwillow, 2004

Synopsis

After she is chosen to be "Bearer-of-the-god," Mirany questions the established order and sets out, along with a musician and a scribe, to find the legitimate heir of the religious leader known as the Archon. Readers Guide available.

About this title

Review

The Oracle Betrayed comes from the pen of the award-winning Welsh author and poet Catherine Fisher, and grabs readers quickly with a convincingly imagined Greco-Egyptian setting and characters that defy quick classification. Our heroine, Mirany, begins the story as a timid teen serving the High Priestess, the masked Speaker who discerns the wishes of a god through a mysterious island oracle. When the current Archon (the sequestered God-on-Earth) passes a secret note to Mirany just before he's sacrificed, the story throws intrigue onto intrigue with a murder plot, a drunken musician, a conflicted scribe, a slick tomb robber, an offended Rain Goddess and no shortage of mystic burial rituals and dusty tombs.

Fisher's biggest accomplishment is that for all the page-turning action, she still manages to raise some pretty heady ideas about death, ambition and the nature of faith. Expect both kids and grown-ups to be reaching for Fisher's follow-up. (Ages 9 to 12) --Paul Hughes, Amazon.com

Review

Thrilling start to an outstanding trilogy (The Times)

It will have you consumed until the very last word (Christina Dunne, aged 15 Feed Back (Plymouth))

The mythology that underpins Mirany's world is richly imagined (The Horn Book magazine)

Climactic, triumphant...with a brief, genuinely chilling denouement (Kirkus)

A crisp, quick-moving narrative and fully fleshed-out characters will keep readers hooked to the remaining installments in this trilogy. (Publishers Weekly)

Catherine Fisher is an expert at creating new worlds, and this is no exception (Planet: The Welsh Internationalist)

Fisher's uncompromising style plunges us...into a hot, arid Mediterranean landscape...the tension endures until the very last page (Books For Keeps)

A powerful and very exciting adventure story (School Librarian)

'suspense is constantly built ... rattles along at a dizzying pace ... next volume please. (School Librarian)

Catherine Fisher has captured the doubtful, devious surviving nature of people in society to perfection. I have never come across a book which shows as much understanding and deals with it as The Oracle (Hannah Latham, aged 15 Young Adult Review News)

Edition details

• Publisher: Greenwillow
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0060571578
• ISBN 13: 9780060571573
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 341