Review: Prophecy

Prophecy
Prophecy, Book 1

Author: Ellen Oh
Pages: 320
Publisher: HarperTeen
Publication Date: January 2, 2013
Source: For review from YA Books Central

Description from Goodreads:
The greatest warrior in all of the Seven Kingdoms… is a girl with yellow eyes.

Kira’s the only female in the king’s army, and the prince’s bodyguard. She’s a demon slayer and an outcast, hated by nearly everyone in her home city of Hansong. And, she’s their only hope…

Murdered kings and discovered traitors point to a demon invasion, sending Kira on the run with the young prince. He may be the savior predicted in the Dragon King Prophecy, but the missing treasure of myth may be the true key. With only the guidance of the cryptic prophecy, Kira must battle demon soldiers, evil shaman, and the Demon Lord himself to find what was once lost and raise a prince into a king.

Intrigue and mystery, ancient lore and action-packed fantasy come together in this heart-stopping first book in a trilogy.

First Sentence: "People feared Kira."

Review:
Writing this review gives me no pleasure. I've been eagerly anticipating Prophecy for months, ever since I heard the comparison to Graceling. On top of that, Ellen Oh totally rocks and I've loved conversing with her on Twitter. Even more excitement stemmed from the Korean setting; I'm completely obsessed with kdrama, and Korea as a result of that. Perhaps I should stop adding books compared to Kristin Cashore to my reading list, as I think three out of three have been monumental failures for me.

Much as I wanted to love this, Prophecy just is not good, especially not as a book for older teens or adult crossover readers. Oh's simple writing might better suit younger readers, just transitioning to fantasy. Those readers, too, might be less familiar with fantasy tropes and thus less aware of where the plot was going from page one. 

Kira sounded like my kind of heroine from the blurb. There are so many books that I have loved that centered on a female with major butt-kicking powers, including Graceling. While Kira does successfully kick and punch and smite a lot of bad guys, she never does manage to develop any sort of a personality. When not killing things, she has no clue what to do with herself, bumbling along in a naive awkwardness. She has no interests aside from fighting and thinks about nothing but that and her family. She is single-minded to the point of unreality. Worse still, Kira whines constantly, misunderstood by everyone in her kingdom. In theory, I should have her back; I mean, I've been friendless and it's incredibly awful, and certainly being the only woman in the army cannot be easy either. Because of the aforementioned lack of personality, I couldn't muster any feelings but annoyance. She also read much younger to me.

Everyone calls her Demon Slayer, and loathes her, thinking her a murderer of humans, unaware that she is actually slaying demons, who secretly wander the kingdom in human guise. Anyone else see the problem in there? If the populace doesn't know demons exist, why would they be calling her Demon Slayer? Kira has increased strength, yellow eyes, and a powerful sense of smell to aid in her demon smiting. She mentions that the stench of unwashed people in a public house can give her a powerful headache, yet she wanders through several fetid sewer tunnels throughout the course of the novel without any ill effects. These plot holes irritated me greatly.

Sadly, none of the other characters really have any more meat on their fictional bones. Taejo, crown prince of Hansong, has to be one of the most irritating child characters I have ever encountered in fiction. What a freaking useless brat! He has all of the fighting skills of the chick in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, which is to say none; he exists solely for yelling, getting kidnapped, and needing to be rescued. Despite his inability to do much of anything, every one in the world is convinced that he will be the Demon Musado of prophecy, meant to slay the evil doer, and that he will be the king to unite everyone. All of his decisions are impulsive and cause more trouble, but no one seems to notice how incredibly awful he is or that, should they not start training him soon, he would be the worst king in the entire universe. Instead, everyone indulges his temper tantrums and does what he says.

The only characters I found remotely interesting were Kira's two love interests, though nothing much has been done with them yet, since Kira is too obliviously unaware to get involved in a romance. For some reason, both are attracted to her, despite her inability to hold conversations for longer than five minutes. Both guys have a bit more depth and show some glimmer of promise.

What really killed me, though, was how boring the action scenes were. If only the action had been great, the book could have been saved just a little bit. Unfortunately, everything happened too easily. Battles end in about a page and a half. People attack, Kira slices, Taejo gets grabbed, Kira chases and slices, and the battle is over. This formula plays out time and again. There's no sense of suspense. The style is very telling, and just does not give a good sense of what's actually happening or make me care at all.

The best part of Prophecy was that I made it into a kdrama in my head. This little movie got me through the book much more quickly. Also, even though I clearly didn't love the book, if they made this into a kdrama, I would watch it in a heartbeat. They should definitely do that. It could be my first historical!

A predictable plot, flat characters, and mediocre writing made Prophecy one of my biggest disappointments this year. Some may enjoy this, but it really was not for me. Hardcore fantasy fans will likely not be thrilled with Prophecy.

Rating: 1.5/5

Favorite Quote: "'That sheep-faced, son of a leper whore.'"