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A review by onthesamepage
The Art of Prophecy by Wesley Chu
adventurous
funny
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
ARC provided by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
The worst disappointments are the ones where the premise sounds so amazing, but then you read the book waiting for some of that to happen and it just never really does.
I love it when tropes get flipped on their head, so reading a story where the chosen one is a useless kid had me excited. Unfortunately, most of the book's pages are full of meandering tangents, until I forgot that this was supposed to be about a chosen one at all. And maybe that was the point; it just wasn't what I was looking for.
I do think this could make for a very entertaining movie franchise. The martial arts scenes were written really well, and there are plenty of amusing characters and snappy dialogue. The characters moved around a lot, and did a lot of things, but I honestly couldn't tell you about a single event that happened that seemed like it was relevant to the overall plot. This feels very much like a setup book for the rest of the series, rather than a story in its own right.
It does pick up a bit towards the end, which saved the book from being a complete miss for me, but I'd be hesitant to recommend this based just on that.
The worst disappointments are the ones where the premise sounds so amazing, but then you read the book waiting for some of that to happen and it just never really does.
I love it when tropes get flipped on their head, so reading a story where the chosen one is a useless kid had me excited. Unfortunately, most of the book's pages are full of meandering tangents, until I forgot that this was supposed to be about a chosen one at all. And maybe that was the point; it just wasn't what I was looking for.
I do think this could make for a very entertaining movie franchise. The martial arts scenes were written really well, and there are plenty of amusing characters and snappy dialogue. The characters moved around a lot, and did a lot of things, but I honestly couldn't tell you about a single event that happened that seemed like it was relevant to the overall plot. This feels very much like a setup book for the rest of the series, rather than a story in its own right.
It does pick up a bit towards the end, which saved the book from being a complete miss for me, but I'd be hesitant to recommend this based just on that.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore and Violence