The Art of Prophecy
A Novel
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The Art of Prophecy
Buy Now for £16.99
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Narrated by:
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Natalie Naudus
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By:
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Wesley Chu
About this listen
A “superb fantasy saga” (Helene Wecker) of martial arts and magic, about what happens when a prophesied hero is not the chosen one after all—but has to work with a band of unlikely allies to save the kingdom anyway, from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Lives of Tao
“An ambitious and touching exploration of disillusionment in faith, tradition, and family—a glorious reinvention of fantasy and wuxia tropes.”—Naomi Novik, New York Times bestselling author of A Deadly Education
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Gizmodo, Kirkus Reviews, The Quill to Live
So many stories begin the same way: With a prophecy. A chosen one. And the inevitable quest to slay a villain, save the kingdom, and fulfill a grand destiny.
But this is not that kind of story.
It does begin with a prophecy: A child will rise to defeat the Eternal Khan, a cruel immortal god-king, and save the kingdom.
And that prophecy did anoint a hero, Jian, raised since birth in luxury and splendor, and celebrated before he has won a single battle.
But that’s when the story hits its first twist: The prophecy is wrong.
What follows is a story more wondrous than any prophecy could foresee, and with many unexpected heroes: Taishi, an older woman who is the greatest grandmaster of magical martial arts in the kingdom but who thought her adventuring days were all behind her; Sali, a straitlaced warrior who learns the rules may no longer apply when the leader to whom she pledged her life is gone; and Qisami, a chaotic assassin who takes a little too much pleasure in the kill.
And Jian himself, who has to find a way to become what he no longer believes he can be—a hero after all.
©2022 Wesley Chu (P)2022 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
Critic reviews
“The Art of Prophecy is an ambitious and touching exploration of disillusionment in faith, tradition, and family, and but also unexpectedly funny. I loved following Wesley Chu’s intricate narrative through this sprawling universe full of glorious reinvention of fantasy and wuxia tropes.”—Naomi Novik, New York Times bestselling author of A Deadly Education
“In this superb fantasy saga of tough, old martial-arts masters and inexperienced young heroes, Wesley Chu has given us a richly inventive page-turner that delights on every page. The Art of Prophecy is Wesley Chu at the height of his imaginative powers, and I can’t wait for the next installment!”—Helene Wecker, author of The Golem and the Jinni and The Hidden Palace
“Electrifying, thrilling, and a glorious, romantic ride, The Art of Prophecy is a true delight. Readers won’t be able to put it down.”—Robert Jackson Bennett, author of The Founders Trilogy
Amazing story and amazing narration!
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Superb
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Fab Fab Fab 😍🤩🥰
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Narration was good.
Fun!
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Great story and great performance
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“An ambitious and touching exploration of disillusionment in faith, tradition, and family—a glorious reinvention of fantasy and wuxia tropes.”—Naomi Novik, New York Times bestselling author of A Deadly Education
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Gizmodo, Kirkus Reviews, The Quill to Live
So many stories begin the same way: With a prophecy. A chosen one. And the inevitable quest to slay a villain, save the kingdom, and fulfill a grand destiny.
But this is not that kind of story.
It does begin with a prophecy: A child will rise to defeat the Eternal Khan, a cruel immortal god-king, and save the kingdom.
And that prophecy did anoint a hero, Jian, raised since birth in luxury and splendor, and celebrated before he has won a single battle.
But that’s when the story hits its first twist: The prophecy is wrong.
What follows is a story more wondrous than any prophecy could foresee, and with many unexpected heroes: Taishi, an older woman who is the greatest grandmaster of magical martial arts in the kingdom but who thought her adventuring days were all behind her; Sali, a straitlaced warrior who learns the rules may no longer apply when the leader to whom she pledged her life is gone; and Qisami, a chaotic assassin who takes a little too much pleasure in the kill.
And Jian himself, who has to find a way to become what he no longer believes he can be—a hero after all.
©2022 Wesley Chu (P)2022 Random House Audio
I have used the audible description to start this review because I feel it gives more of an accurate description of what the story is actualy about.
You might think this is your tipical story a child is called to fulfil a prophecy and all that stuff, however this is much more than that. Yes it does start with a prophecy and a hero who is called to fulfill it Jian the hero is a teenager who has been raised in splender in the pallace of the former empra however when Taishi the gratest grandmaster of magical martial arts in the kingdom arrives to check on the boy's training she finds a spoielt teenager who is no where near ready to flfill his destany and this is where the first twist in the prophecy occurs as it turns out the prophecy is wrong. This is not a spoiler as we learn this quite early on.
Taishi decides that going forward she needs to continue the boy's training and this is where the real story starts. This is much more than a story about a boy who's called to fulfill a prophecy. It's a story about a number of un lightly hero's Taishi the gratest grandmaster of magical martial arts in the kingdom who thought her adventuring days were over, Sali a straight laced warrior who learns that the rules may not be as important as she first thought now the leader she is pledged to has died, Qisami a shadow killer assassin who takes a bit two much pleasure in the kill and Jian himself who has to find a way to become what he no longer believes he can be a hero. It is a story of a war between kingdoms and the 4 characters who are going to be the un lightly saviours.
I love all four of the main Characters in the story. Jian is a boy who has been used and taken advantage of by people who wanted the glory for themselves therefor he's confused and arrigant so when he finds himself betraied by the people he thought had his best interests at heart he has no choice but to rely on Taishi. Jan however does his best to fight the new way of things however gradually we start to see him grow and mature through his new experiences. Taishi is the gratest grandmaster of magical martial arts in the kingdom, despite having a disability she's a complete beast in the ring and is not to be messed with, she's got a sharp tongue but through the story we see the soft heart she has. She is a fantastic character and her scenes were fantastic to read. Sali is a warriour pledged to the eternal con that Jian is destined to diffeet and is very straight laced and honest however when her leader dies she learns the rules may not matter as much. She ends up rebelling against her duty and going on a journey to search for her sister and find the next con. Qisami a shadow killer assassin who takes pleasure in the kil, I have to say her scenes wer my favourite, the quips she used to the people she was after and the way she just calmly went about her business. She was probably my favourite character if I am truly honest despite being eval.
This first story was more getting us introduced to the world and how things work, Taishi and Jian's relationship was not as present in this book as the description might suggest as they spent a large part of the novel apart. It's basicly each characters seperate storyline however they do intersect. I would suspect that the next book we'll start to see more of the four characters exact rolls and how important they will be to the overall series. I did not expect to but I found myself really enjoying this book. The audible reader was someone i'd never had before but she did a really good job of differentiating each character and giveng them there own voice. I've pre-ordered the second book and am looking forward to the next one in the series.
What an amazing book.
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Loved it
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I've heard this book is about the world building and is to set up a lot of book 2 Art of Destiny which is what I saw in Waterstones and drew me to the series so maybe I need to stick it out, but I can't be bothered to waste my time listening to another 10 hours of audiobook to not care. Sorry Wesley Chu. Your world building is great, descriptions are great but the story just wasn't for me. Characters weren't relatable
I honestly just got bored and couldn't be bothered
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