Adam Rubenstein and Sunil Rao have been reluctant partners since their Uzbekistan days. Adam is a seemingly unflappable American Intelligence officer and Rao is an ex-MI6 agent, an addict and rudderless pleasure hound, with the uncanny ability to discern the truth of things—about everyone and everything other than Adam. When an American diner turns up in a foggy field in the UK after a mysterious death, Adam and Rao are called in to investigate, setting into motion the most dangerous and otherworldly mission of their lives.
In a surreal, action-packed quest that takes Adam and Rao from secret laboratories in Colorado, to a luxury lodge in Aspen, to the remote Nevada desert, the pair begins to uncover how and why people’s fondest memories are being weaponized against them by a spooky, ever-shifting substance called Prophet. As the unlikely twosome battles this strange new reality, Prophet’s victims’ memories are materializing in increasingly bizarre forms: favorite games, beloved pets, fairground rides, each more malevolent than the next. Prophet is like no enemy Adam and Rao – or the world – have ever come up against.
A tension-shot odd-couple romance, an unflinching send-up of corporate corruption, and a genre-bending tour de force, Prophet is a triumph of storytelling by a new writing duo with a thrilling future.
Praise for Prophet:
Finalist for Foreword INDIES Best Science Fiction Book of the Year
Longlisted for the Virginia Commonwealth University Cabell First Novelist Award
A Shelf Awareness 10 Best Fiction Books of the Year Selection
A Best Book of 2023 from Book Riot and Scientific American
New York Public Library “Best Books for Adults” 2023 Selection
A Most Anticipated Book of 2023 from BookPage and Literary Hub
A Locus Recommended Reading Pick
“Reads like a Christopher Nolan movie.”—Washington Post
“A sui generis and rather wonderful collaboration… Boy, is it interesting to watch Rubenstein and Rao grapple with the mysteries around them.”—New York Times
“An ambitious first novel from this duo—I can’t wait to see what they come up with next.”—Wall Street Journal
“Excellent escapist reading with a mind-bending premise . . . A perfect blend of twisty, high-stakes scenes that a reader expects from a sci-fi thriller, along with a strong narrative voice.”—Book Riot
“If Twin Peaks, The X-Files, and Doctor Who had a baby from The Twilight Zone, you might come close to this madcap, noir sci-fi featuring one of the genre’s more memorable romances.”—New York Public Library, “Best Books for Adults” 2023 Selection
“I could not put this book down and nearly threw it across the room when I finished it!”—Brianne Kane, Scientific American, A Best Book of the Year
“A surprising and unexpected blend of surreal science fiction, action thriller, and slow-burn queer romance, character-driven with a depth I rarely encounter in SFF . . . I’ve never read anything with quite this combination of elements, and Blaché and Macdonald balance the mix superbly.”—Locus
“The authors hit all the expected sci-fi notes – an ill-fated experiment expanding into a quantum field of love and loss – but resist the containment of a single genre. Prophet is a page-turner in which object-oriented philosophy sits comfortably alongside military acronyms – and with a handful of familiar horror tropes to boot.”—Telegraph (UK)
“Instantly enticing . . . A freaky, touching horror story that explores, among other things, the nature of nostalgia and how it can be weaponized by an otherworldly adversary . . . the debut collaboration for Helen Macdonald and Sin Blaché, but here’s hoping it’s not the last. Prophet is a trip.”—Philadelphia Inquirer
“A beautiful, tense, strange, and heartfelt first collaboration from a duo not to be missed.”—Shelf Awareness
“Striking in its originality and its capacity to instill unease, even terror. It evolves over time, with the consequences of its use growing ever more disturbing and incomprehensible . . . A chilling speculative thriller in which some suffer, and others profit, from idealizing the past.”—Foreword Reviews
“A fast-paced techno-thriller, with a high body count, zippy dialogue and an intriguing central mystery . . . The novel is immense fun, a work of exceptional storytelling skill and stylistic panache . . . The writing is high-spec, lively, vivid. The dialogue is sharp, often funny . . . Without letting the pace slacken, Macdonald and Blaché manage to fold in powerful reflections on loss and trauma . . . H Is for Highly Recommended.”—Guardian (UK)
“Mind-bendingly absorbing.”—Marie Claire (UK)
“Redolent of such small-screen favourites as Twin Peaks, Stranger Things and Lost, this sci-fi novel is entertaining, erudite and eerie.”—Scotsman (UK)
“Prophet is a blast.”—Times (UK)
“Sinuous and transfixing . . . The well-matched authors make good on their audacious premise.”—Publishers Weekly, Book of the Week
“I had heard Prophet (accurately) described as a genre mash-up, blending the best of techno-noir, dystopian sci-fi, and espionage procedural (with a dash of queer romance). And while it is all those things, at its heart Helen Macdonald and Sin Blaché’s tightly wound (yet somehow tender?) mystery-sci-fi-thriller is a philosophical novel… What is life without mystery? And at what point does nostalgia grow so strong it derails our lives?”—Literary Hub
“The authors’ most irresistible achievement… is their odd-couple pairing of the Dionysian Rao with the fastidious Rubenstein, who bicker and banter contentiously despite their fondness for each other. The well-matched authors make good on their audacious premise.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review
“Intriguing and deftly plotted . . . pulse-pounding, philosophically fascinating, even blackly funny . . . A crisply written, inventive, complicated brew of a novel.”—Kirkus Reviews
“A beautiful, tense, strange, and heartfelt first collaboration from a duo not to be missed.”—Shelf Awareness
“Shrewdly imagined, sharply crafted, witty, chilling, psychologically lush, grotesque, and romantic.”—Booklist
“Unlike many sci-fi titles, the focus of the book revolves around the two main characters rather than on action sequences or futuristic technologies. This allows for plenty of mystery and drama as the story shifts between the present and the past, intertwining the two men and a substance that is making time essentially irrelevant.”—Library Journal
“Fabulous… Present day science fiction that feels like the best sort of spy novel with real people you can care about. And it’s a page-turner. So good.”—Neil Gaiman, author of American Gods
“Prophet is a crackling, shape-shifting romp with big ideas and a bigger heart. Blaché and Macdonald take a no-holds-barred approach to manifesting the ways in which individual desires are exploited by the systems we live under, and ask the necessary question of whether escape from that cycle is possible. This is a display of sheer inventiveness, and a delight.”—C Pam Zhang, author of How Much of These Hills is Gold
“Absorbing, fast-paced and febrile, Prophet takes you through the world at an angle, exposing cracks in the reality we think we inhabit. An exhilarating and surprisingly tender trip.”—G. Willow Wilson, author of Alif the Unseen
“Sin Blaché and Helen Macdonald have turned nostalgia — ‘the trash of hearts’ — into a world and a trap. Prophet promises to bring back everything you lost and now yearn for. Is it a drug? Or is it a new state of matter? Whatever it is, it’s proper science fiction — self-aware, funny, ruthlessly propulsive, full of invention, parodic yet perfectly serious about its underlying issues with contemporary retro culture, and ending with a complex, emotionally satisfying extension of the personal into the sublime. I loved it.”—M. John Harrison, author of Light
“Prophet is a wildly fun, inventive, funny, and terrifying book, with a superb mystery that gets ever more compelling and weird and, horrifyingly, familiar. This book finds the nightmare in the comforting lies we tell ourselves about our pasts, and how they inform our present.”—Phil Klay, author of Uncertain Ground
“A hyperkinetic headrush of a novel that proves its organic bona fides by getting you drunk with ideas before casually and cataclysmically breaking your heart.”— Paraic O’Donnell, author of The House on Vesper Sands
Reading Group Guide
Written by Je Banach for Prophet.
1. Who is Sunil Rao and what special powers does he possess? How do Rao’s reflections on his talent allow the authors to initiate a conversation around the theme of truth? For instance, does the book suggest how we can best distinguish between what is true and untrue? What makes this difficult both within the novel and in the real world and how does the book shed light on the consequences of an individual or collective failure to discern fact from fiction?
2. Revisit the flashback scenes from Adam’s childhood and adolescence. What do they reveal to readers about his life and character? How did you feel about the scenes that exposed his relationship with his parents? Were you surprised by his choice to remain at home rather than to leave with his Aunt Sasha? Why or why not? Do you think that you would have made the same choice if you were in his position?
3. What is Prophet and what are some of the effects it has on those who are exposed to it? What do you think made it so attractive, even irresistible? Do you think that you would have been able to resist it? How might these considerations allow us to look at our own pharmacological industry with new eyes? For example, where would you say the line should be drawn between “medicine” and “drug” and who maintains—or should maintain—responsibility and power over these protections?
4. Explore how the novel creates an extensive dialogue around nostalgia and memory.
5. What is nostalgia and how is it converted into a weapon in the book? What kinds of memories are reflected in the manifestations created by Prophet and those who have been exposed to it? How does the novel represent the dangers of idealizing the past? What does it reveal about the human propensity to use fantasy as a means to escape the reality of the present? How do Rao and Adam’s own memories serve as counterpoints to this?
6. Dr. Kitty Caldwell tells Rao: “It was a military disease. Back in the eighteenth century, Swiss mercenaries in France and Italy started falling ill. They lost all interest in life, pined for the mountains, had hallucinations, saw ghosts . . . A medical student called Johannes Hofer coined a term for it: ‘nostalgia.’ It was a kind of homesickness. From the Greek nostos, meaning a return to home, and algos, meaning [pain] . . . The problem with imagining a home you want to return to is, of course, that you tend to exclude people from it you don’t want there with you . . . nostalgia is emotional and psychological, but it’s also political” (p. 73). How does the novel serve as a warning of the ways in which nostalgia “manifested through shared cultural experience” (p. 406) can be political—and politicized—and how could be this be problematic on a global scale? How does Ms. Crossland serve as a symbol of this?
7. Reviewers of Blaché and Macdonald’s novel frequently mention the genre-bending nature of the book, which combines elements of science fiction, fantasy, the spy novel, and romance, but how does the novel resists classical categorizations? Discuss how Prophet might offer up new interpretations of classification and genre.
8. At the heart of the book is the relationship—and blooming romance—between Adam and Rao. How does the novel explore themes such as trust, vulnerability, and intimacy via this pairing? What draws Adam and Rao to each other? How does their relationship evolve over the course of the book? What does their connection reveal about the nature and meaning of love?
9. How might the book be read as an allegory about the dangers of corporate corruption in an age of technological advancements? How does Prophet address the related subjects of ethics (or a lack thereof), greed, and complicity? What motivates those cultivating Prophet? How does Prophet affect consumers of it? What seem to be the consequences of the commodification of that which is personal to people? Does the book suggest how this might be prevented?
10. Explore Prophet as a philosophical novel. How does it create conversation around issues such as ethics, time, and death? Throughout the book Rao and Adam frequently muse on what is real or what does not feel real about themselves or the world. In Chapter 25 Rao says: “I’ve never been anything real” (p. 130). What does he mean by this? Does the book ultimately answer questions around what is real or authentic and what is not?
11. Rao frequently thinks back to his time in Kabul. How was he traumatized by his experiences there and how did this affect his worldview? How were Rao’s talents utilized there and what was the outcome? What did he learn from this betrayal?
12. How do the authors employ humor in the novel? Consider, for instance, the odd-couple trope embodied by Rao and Adam. Why do you think readers and viewers of films have traditionally enjoyed this trope so much? How do Rao and Adam use humor in their own lives? Why do you think Rao laughs and jokes so much even in tense situations? Alternatively, what does Rao think that Adam’s seeming “immunity to jokes and jabs” (p. 17) is about?
13. Like nostalgia, guilt can be a sign of remaining tethered too tightly to the past. Throughout the book Rao and Adam reflect upon things they feel guilty about. What are some of these things and how do they each cope with their guilt? Are they ever able to confront and deal with their guilt in a cathartic way? Are they able to forgive themselves?
14. In Chapter 65 Dr. Veronica Rhodes tells Rao: “Well, Lane’s terribly fond of slogans. He says that just like fluoride in water protects a nation’s teeth, Prophet in water protects a nation’s idea of itself” (p. 379). What does she mean by this? What does Veronica say that her manifesto is and how does she think that Prophet could “[save] America” (p. 380)? How does Rao respond to this? What does he say that Veronica would actually be saving?
15. “I always thought the end of the world was going to be, you know,” Rao tells Rubenstein, “properly apocalyptic. Fires. Tidal waves. Floods” (p. 390). How does the book invite readers to challenge and reconsider their own notions of apocalypse and what could lead us there?
16. “Adam remade him,” Rao thinks. “They both, together, remade him” (p. 455), but Adam is also changed at the story’s conclusion. How did Rao and Adam remake each other?
17. How does Adam respond when confronted with the decision of whether or not to live a life that would undo one of his greatest losses? Were you surprised by this? Why or why not? Do you think that he made the right choice? What factors played into his decision?
18. “Loss makes us who we are,” Rao says. “If you’d lived a life without the loss you had, you wouldn’t be you,” he tells Adam (p. 459). How does the novel explore the interconnected themes of love, loss, and grief? How do the characters in the book grieve elements of their past lives and past selves and cope with loss? How might grief function as an antidote to—or way of freeing ourselves from—nostalgia?
Suggested Reading
Ambient by Jack Womack
The Amphora Project by William Kotzwinkle
Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer
Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James
The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum
The City We Became by N. K. Jemisin
Dhalgren and Dark Reflections by Samuel R. Delany
Exhalation by Ted Chiang
How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu
Hyperion by Dan Simmons
I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger
Inception: The Shooting Script by Christopher Nolan
Light by M. John Harrison
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
Neuromancer by William Gibson
Otherworld by Jason Segel and Kirsten Miller
Prey by Michael Crichton
Recursion by Blake Crouch
Redeployment by Phil Klay
ReInception by Sarena Straus
The Rook by Daniel O’Malley
Simulacra and Simulation by Jean Baudrillard
Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
Touch by Olaf Olafsson
Grove Press
