The Oracle (novel)

Last updated

The Oracle
The Oracle (novel).jpg
First edition UK (publ. Hodder & Stoughton)
Author Catherine Fisher
LanguageEnglish
SeriesOracle Prophecies #1
Publisher Hodder Children's Books
Publication date
1 January 2003
Pages368
ISBN 9780340843765
(1st ed. UK paperback)
OCLC 59361196
Followed byThe Archon 

The Oracle is a 2003 young adult fantasy novel by Catherine Fisher, which was published in the United States as The Oracle Betrayed. [1]

Contents

The Oracle is the first of the Oracle Prophecies Trilogy. The others are The Archon (2004) and The Scarab (2005); with the US titles The Sphere of Secrets and The Day of the Scarab, respectively.

The book was shortlisted for the 2003 Whitbread Awards.

Plot summary

The Oracle is set in a fictional world, in the middle of a terrible drought. The Archon, the god-on-earth, has been called by the god to die, in order to bring rain to the land. Mirany is the bearer-of-the-god, one of the Nine priestesses who attend the god and his various incarnations. Her duty as Bearer is to hold the god in scorpion form in a bronze bowl. The god is fickle, and occasionally claims the Bearer's life. This terrifies Mirany.

As the procession taking the Archon to his death reaches the final destination, the top of a Ziggurat in the City of the Dead, the Archon slips Mirany a note, telling her that the Oracle of the god is being betrayed, and the Speaker is corrupt. The Speaker is the most senior member of the Nine, and relays messages from the god, which he delivers via the Oracle. The Archon is killed by the scorpion the god inhabits, carried by Mirany.

Secretly, Mirany does not believe in the god. She sees him as a lie, used by the Nine to gain favor. However, this changes when he begins to speak directly into her mind.

Mirany discovers a plot by Hermia, the Speaker, and the General Argelin, to control the land, and that the Archon's death was arranged by the two so that they could choose the new Archon, a young boy, and use him as a puppet. Mirany, with the help of the previous Archon's musician Oblek, and Seth, an ambitious scribe, must find the new Archon, and instate him before Hermia and Argelin can.

Characters

Awards

Awards for The Oracle
YearAwardResultRef.
2003 Whitbread Children's Book Award Shortlisted [2]
Bram Stoker Award for Best Work for Young Readers Shortlisted [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apollo</span> Greek god of music, prophecy and healing

Apollo is one of the Olympian deities in classical Greek and Roman religion and Greek and Roman mythology. Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, music and dance, truth and prophecy, healing and diseases, the Sun and light, poetry, and more. One of the most important and complex of the Greek gods, he is the son of Zeus and Leto, and the twin brother of Artemis, goddess of the hunt. He is considered to be the most beautiful god and is represented as the ideal of the kouros. Apollo is known in Greek-influenced Etruscan mythology as Apulu.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Set (deity)</span> Egyptian god of the desert, storms, violence, and foreigners

Set is a god of deserts, storms, disorder, violence, and foreigners in ancient Egyptian religion. In Ancient Greek, the god's name is given as Sēth. Set had a positive role where he accompanies Ra on his barque to repel Apep, the serpent of Chaos. Set had a vital role as a reconciled combatant. He was lord of the Red Land (desert), where he was the balance to Horus' role as lord of the Black Land.

The Book of Gates is an ancient Egyptian funerary text dating from the New Kingdom. The Book of Gates is long and detailed, consisting of one hundred scenes. It narrates the passage of a newly deceased soul into the next world journeying with of the sun god, Ra, through the underworld during the hours of the night towards his resurrection. The soul is required to pass through a series of 'gates' at each hour of the journey. Each gate is guarded by a different serpent deity that is associated with a different goddess. It is important that the deceased knows the names of each guardian. Depictions of the judgment of the dead are shown in the last three hours. The text implies that some people will pass through unharmed, but others will suffer torment in a lake of fire. At the end of Ra's journey through the underworld, he emerges anew to take his place back in the sky.

<i>The Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok</i> Manga by Sakura Kinoshita and its adaptations

The Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok is a manga by Sakura Kinoshita published from August 1999 to October 2004. A television anime based on the manga series ran for 26 episodes from April 5, 2003, to September 27, 2003, in Japan.

Negation is a comic book series published by CrossGen. Tony Bedard was the writer for the entire run. Paul Pelletier was the artist for most of the issues, with an occasional fill-in artist on some issues.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hermia</span> Character in A Midsummer Nights Dream

Hermia is a fictional character from Shakespeare's play, A Midsummer Night's Dream. She is a girl of ancient Athens named for Hermes, the Greek god of trade.

<i>Mummies Alive!</i> TV series or program

Mummies Alive! is an animated series from DIC Productions L.P. and Northern Lights Entertainment. It originally aired for one season in 1997. The show was part of a general trend of "mummymania" in 1990s pop culture.

<i>Diomin</i> 2000 dark fantasy role-playing game

Diomin is a dark fantasy role-playing game, designed by R. Hyrum Savage and published by OtherWorld Creations (OWC).

Catherine Fisher is a Welsh poet and children's novelist. She has also worked as a school and university teacher.

The Hypostasis of the Archons, also called The Reality of the Rulers or The Nature of the Rulers, is a Gnostic writing. The only known surviving manuscript is in Coptic as the fourth tractate in Codex II of the Nag Hammadi library. It has some similarities with On the Origin of the World, which immediately follows it in the codex. The Coptic version is a translation of a Greek original, possibly written in Egypt in the third century AD. The text begins as an exegesis on Genesis 1–6 and concludes as a discourse explaining the nature of the world's evil authorities. It applies Christian Gnostic beliefs to the Jewish origin story, and translator Bentley Layton believes the intent is anti-Jewish.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ra</span> Ancient Egyptian solar deity

Ra or Re was the ancient Egyptian deity of the Sun. By the Fifth Dynasty, in the 25th and 24th centuries BC, he had become one of the most important gods in ancient Egyptian religion, identified primarily with the noon-day sun. Ra ruled in all parts of the created world: the sky, the Earth, and the underworld. He was believed to have ruled as the first pharaoh of Ancient Egypt. He was the god of the sun, order, kings and the sky.

Tara Duncan is the heroine of the eponymous series of bestselling novels in French written by Sophie Audouin-Mamikonian.

Sea Swept is the first book of four in the Chesapeake Bay novel series. Originally published in 1998.

References

  1. Russell, Mary Harris (16 May 2004). "Children's Corner". Chicago Tribune. p. 14-3.
  2. "Past Winners" (PDF). Costa Book Awards. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 December 2009. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
  3. "Past Award Nominees and Winners". Horror Writers Association . 15 June 2000. Retrieved 6 April 2023.