Customer Reviews

Dark Oracle

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When I heard that Laura Bickle would bring out another urban fantasy series under the pseudonym Alayna Williams I was over the moon. Since I enjoyed Embers so much, I thought that DARK ORACLE would be a sure deal. Even if the cover looked like it was photoshopped by an amateur, the concept sounded interesting.

Profiler Tara Gilian was used to hunt serial killers, but one of them turned on her and the experience left her scarred physically as well as mentally.
When her former allies, the Oracles of Delphi call her for help, Tara wants to refuse. She's done with this scene. Her cards tell her to help them though and it's hard to refuse fate.

While I was reading DARK ORACLE a suspicion sneaked up on me. Writers rarely sell their first novel and they often have several novels they are shopping around, trying to get a publisher. I believe that DARK ORACLE is the older and Embers the more recent novel. That's the most logical explanation for the differing skill sets shown by the author. 'Cause there is a difference - not only in style and tone - but in the level of expertise.
Let's start with the concept. In theory a criminal profiler who solves her cases with the help of tarot, doesn't sound bad. Especially, when this profiler abandoned the secret society of oracles where her deceased mother was a prominent member. The reality is mind bogglingly dull. When Tara lays her cards, she describes them in great detail. Why would she do that? She knows these cards (and what's on them) better than the back of her hand! At first I thought they were magical and that the pictures would change slightly to adapt to the situation, but it turns out the cards are mundane. Some of the sets hold more than eight cards and when Tara finishes with the last one I had already forgotten what had come before. Her results are vague and can't compare with the more flashy methods of the other oracles. Maybe someone, who is familiar with tarot, will appreciate this part of the story more than I. Still, there must be a way to make these scenes interesting.
The male dominated military against female dominated magical society fighting for possession of a new, extremely dangerous technology (military wants to use it for nefarious purposes, oracles want to prevent its use) plot is stereotypical and cheesy. Williams struggles bravely against the cheesefest, but it breaks through time and time again.
While the characters have the potential to ground the story in reality, they often add to the melodrama. I liked Tara's background, the way she was scarred emotionally and physically and how she tried to deal with it (not always successfully). However, others portray her as a warrior (the other oracles, her mother, her boyfriend), but there is nothing in her mental make up to convince me of it. Neither her power nor her personality seem suited to this task. That doesn't mean she can't hold her own if she needs to, but there's a vulnerability, a softness, a passivity to Tara that don't mesh with my understanding of the term "warrior". I also didn't like the relationship with her sorta-boyfriend. It develops in leaps and bounds, backtracks again and there's much agonizing on Tara's part. No thanks.
The best thing about this novel is a minor character. Wily old Martin knows enough about heart attacks to outfox the enemy and enough about sensual massages to embarrass his protégé. There is something about him that feels real and authentic, that others lacked.

In the end I was happy I discovered Laura Bickle first. If it had been the other way round I'm not sure I would have tried the superior Embers and I would have missed out on a very enjoyable novel.

Laura Bickle, aka Alayna Williams, is NOT writing the same old Urban Fantasy. She has some very fresh ideas! If you're a die-hard looking for vampires and werewolves in your UF, this isn't for you, but if you're ready for something /different/, read THIS. Think X-Files but with Scully as the lead and she actually possesses some magical skills. Tara, the main character, left her job with the feds after being the target of a serial killer she was investigating. She's scarred inside and out, but she's drawn back in by this new case. While the subject of the main plot involves sci-fi stuff like dark energy, the story was completely plausible to me and seemed very well-researched. It wasn't told in a way that made me feel like I needed to /be/ a scientist to understand it. Bravo!

There's government conspiracy, dangerous scientific technology at stake, a love interest, and a murder-mystery to solve. Meanwhile, Tara has to face her old fears /and/ the people who let her down.

Very entertaining story. Looking forward to the next installment.

I was excited to dive into a mystery novel whose main character was a tarot reader, even if in the back of my mind, I expected the storyline to pale in comparison to the tarot bits I was looking forward to. I was delighted to find that the entire story captured my attention and held it. It kept me on my toes, turning pages, wanting to find out what happened next. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, start to finish. It contained action, mystery, mysticism, drama, romance and Tarot (as well as other divination methods).

The main character Tara was a criminal profiler, using her intuitive tarot skills to help her track suspects and solve cases. She abandoned her career after a near-fatal experience with a serial killer she tracked down. She is urged out of hiding by Delphi's Daughters, a secret society her mother was a member of. They request her help with the case of a missing scientist who has harnessed the power of dark energy, which in the wrong hands, could prove disastrous for humankind.

Tara's unlikely partner is left-brained Agent Harry Li. Their attraction to one another develops throughout the story, hindered along the way by Tara's secret intuitive side which she keeps hidden from him, along with her self-consciousness from being physically and emotionally scarred.

While Tara and Harry are on the trail of the missing scientist, they are being tracked themselves by a wayward and dangerous member of Delphi's Daughters and corrupt government officials who want Tara dead.

As the story progresses, Tara pulls out her tarot deck every once in awhile to guide her in the next direction. We are privy to her readings, as she uses several spreads.

Following are the spreads and readings you will find in the book. Each reading is detailed with the card drawn, the position it falls under, and the interpretations. Tara also frequently connects the cards to the cards drawn in previous readings throughout the book.

Chapter 1: Celtic Cross
Chapter 5: Impromptu 3-Card Spread
Chapter 8: 9-Card Past-Present-Future Spread
Chapter 15: Two 1-Card Readings & a 7-Card Ouroboros Spread
Chapter 16: Impromptu 2-Card Spread
Chapter 20: 9-Card Tree of Life Spread (This is the only reading she does for another person.)

In addition to tarot cards, there are also other methods of divination used by the members of Delphi's Daughters including geomancy, runes, scrying and pyromancy. I loved this fascinating additional layer to the story.

The experience Tara goes through, in hiding her tarot cards from Agent Li is something I think a great many tarot readers will relate to, as hiding this aspect of one's life from certain people is an unfortunate reality I believe many tarot readers have had to deal with at one time or another.

The author used a variety of decks herself to help her with the storyline and character backgrounds.

When I finished the book, I wanted more. I wanted to know what was next for the characters. So I was thrilled when the sequel, Rogue Oracle came out! I highly recommended both books!

(See my blog for a more extensive review of this book.)

~ Kiki (TarotDame.com)

This book was completely and utterly dull to me. Several times I even came back to Amazon to re-read the reviews, just so I could be encouraged to continue reading this book. It's ashamed really, I was so looking forward to this fantasy/scifi hybrid. I imagined it to have real promise and be something different from the norm. Although it was different from the norm, there wasn't enough action and progress in the story to hold my attention.

I don't think this author Laura Bickle/Alayna Williams' writing style jives with me. When reviewing her books, my opinion always seems to be in the minority. I'm never impressed with her books and usually walk away from it feeling disappointed and bored. Therefore, this author and her pseudonym will be stricken from my reading list.

I read this book first in my to read pile because I thought I wouldn't like it. I was pleasantly surprised, and was immediately drawn into the story. Of course the main character's past is supposed to be a driving point for readers, but I didn't really care. Why the main character is scarred didn't interest me as much the actual mystery of the missing scientist. It's been a long time since I read a mystery in an urban fantasy book that I actually cared about, so that helped boost Dark Oracle in my esteem. Unfortunately, around page 200 everything crashed and burned. A romance developed that wasn't very believable or exciting. I wish I had gotten to know the characters more before the romance was thrown in. A slowly developed romance is always more interesting to me than one that happens all of the sudden for no reason. Then, the love interest decides to get mad over something trivial and I became annoyed. The mystery solving slowed at that point and my interest decreased more and more each chapter. Characters started to become more shallow and less exciting, and the action scenes just weren't appealing to me. The tarot readings, which were originally unique and entertaining, because extremely repetitious and the entire thing started to wear thin. I felt much the same about Embers, interesting premise but the story fizzled. There is definitely potential for a good book from this author if she could just keep up the steam from the beginning of the book the entire way through. This book was well on it's way to being a four or even a five, but it just didn't work out. There are plenty of good ideas, the author is great at writing an entertaining mystery, and it almost came together, but not quite.

Criminal Profiler, Tara Sheridian, reluctantly agrees to take on an investigation into the disappearance of Dr. Magnusson, a scientist working on a top secret military project. Still suffering from her attack at the hands of serial killer, The Gardener, Sheridian joins forces with Agent Harry Li.

This book breaks from the gate with a strong start and as a reader I quickly became interested in Sheridian, her past, her abilities and her relationship with the women power group, Delphi 's Daughters.

The first third of the book is very engaging and if you were an X-files fan you get some of that feeling. How Tara plays the relationships at Major Gabriel, Corvus and Li shows a complex understanding of human psychology and gives the character some street cred. Her use of the Tarot cards is a sideline power that she doesn't reveal to her mainstream co-workers until forced later in the story.

However, about halfway through this story starts to stall out which makes me think that the first half was held and re-worked for some time and then it was hurriedly written to a finish for publication

The backstory of what Tara underwent under the hands of The Gardener doesn't, unfortunately, give depth to the story. I am guessing that the author felt that this realism (an actual rape) would not sit well with her reading audience and would turn the book too dark. So we get Serial Killer Lite theme which seems to be artificially tacked on to provide a Tragic Past.

Like her other book, Embers under her Laura Bickle name, the heroine's love interest is another boring, "boy-next-door" guy who's only standout is he is Asian. While I am enjoying having more minorities in books, this alone isn't something that is going to engage me. Li is a nice enough guy and comes through at the end, but really, do I want to read an ongoing series with him as her lover? Not really.

The author shows her real strength with minor characters - Cassie (Magnusson's daughter); Martin who shows even if you are old you can have more tricks then the military; Sophia (Tara's substitute mom figure) and the Pythia (the head of Delphi's Daughters). Unfotunately, one of these characters meets a premature end, which I think was really a plot mistake as the person would have kept an interesting dynamic in future books.

Protagonist, Adrienne, is also well drawn. Her end is historically awesome and horrible just as Miss Prism demands: The Good end Happily and the Bad end Unhappily. That is what Fiction means.

The authors' strength in world building is more evident in Dark Oracle then Embers. Here we have a secret society of powerful women - Delphi's Daughters, that come across as being a group of women who you would meet anywhere. Again, this author has a strong writing ability to form realistic and interesting sub-characters - which makes me wonder if her male protagonists will always be weak like Robin McKinley's heros?

The Tarot card readings are meaningful and applicable to the story (though later become cumbersome as a plot device). Tara's intuitive powers of reading the cards should have been transferred to other talents and though we see a hint of this in the beginning of the book, later we do not.

For me, the tired theme of military-secret-weapon with out of control, psychopathic Major Gabriel can be spotted at a hundred yards.

While a fun read, the lack of depth to the characters, the un-interesting love connection, and rushed pacing of secrets and relationships mean this book wouldn't be worth a re-read or an honored place on my bookshelf. This author will need to step it up for me to continue to invest.

So I pretty much really enjoy a book that has a strong female main character that never ever backs down! This one definitely kept me rapt to my Nook reading and reading and wanting more! Tara is someone you want to immediately know more about and it's an almost a quick bond between her character and the reader.

The story is fast paced and coherent. There's the paranormal aspects and the "normal" aspects that are pretty much guaranteed to satisfy any one's reading tastes. The writing is smart and fresh, the concept is clever, the character development is pretty darn near flawless.

All in all, I felt like this was a great start of a series. I enjoy books that let you get to know the main character slowly instead of the dreaded, "info dump" via flash backs or loooong introductions. This book let the reader slowly figure Tara out. You get a few pieces of information about her at the start, but you get to know her as you read on. You see what makes her tick and what drives her, and to me that was awesome! She is a great character and I can't wait to see more about her!

I liked the book but must admit, I liked the Laura Bickle Embers series better. The story line was solid and I really was looking forward to it. However, the story was bogged down with the extreme explanations of the tarot cards. Totally understand the importance of the cards to the character, but it was just a tad too much. It was slow going at first, but picked up and ultimately, I liked it. Hopefully, the second in the series improves.

:Brought to you by OBS Staff Member Verushka

I love urban fantasies, but after some time, there are certain elements that become familiar and routine. Alayna Williams has for me, done something different - created a world, and a character that is as fiercely based in the human world as she is in the supernatural parts of it - Tara, the main character is a criminal profiler, an every day job in comparison to the vampires, witches, warlocks and assorted supernatural beings that are in such books. Tara is as defined by her human world and job, as she is by her power and her power to "see" the future through her tarot cards. Even that isn't entirely correct, her power, as such, guides her intuition, if anything. Generally, Williams writes it as subdued, never letting it take over anything.

Every character, secondary (Harry) and supporting (Pythia and Cassie Magnusson, the missing scientist's daughter) has a part to play, and each is written strongly enough that for whatever length they have devoted to them, every word matters. I don't usually like jumping around from character to character in books, but Williams' makes this work, for everyone matters on their own, and to Tara. Each character is as fully realized as they can be supporting Tara's story.

Tara's tarot reading, I will admit, can become a bit much to read in this book, for it slows down the pacing considerably. But the details of it are interesting, and nothing that I have read before, and by the second book, which I've just started, Williams' seems to have found her pacing, and made those moments of tarot cards and Tara's voice as she reads them fit into the story much better than in the first. In retrospect, the pacing issue in this book could very well be considered Tara finding her stride with reading the cards again, as when we meet her, she hasn't done so in a long time.

The book revolves around the search for a missing scientist, and as much as that comes with a bit of the unexplainable/fantastical what makes it unique is Williams' style of writing and talent for grounding her writing so well that this could be a crime novel, with a fantasy twist, instead of an urban fantasy, with a cops and robbers theme.

READ THE REST OF THE REVIEW HERE:

I read Dark Oracle a couple of months after I discovered Laura Bickle's (Alayna Williams' alter ego) writing style through Embers, so I knew what I was in for: a dark and gritty urban fantasy with metaphorical storytelling, but still Dark Oracle held quite a few surprises for me.

First of all even though I was expecting dark and gritty the heroine of Dark Oracle still astonished me: she is a deeply scarred and tortured young woman for whom my heart went out for. She survived such unimaginable horrors that the simple fact that she is still alive (even if living a very limited and recluse life) is proof to her strength and willpower. Tara barely survived a savage attack by a serial killer she was investigating and that near-death experience irrevocably changed her forever. She became insecure and is doubting everything. The meticulous and detailed portrayal of Tara's emotional state following that trauma makes her suffering tangible and so real that the reader cannot help but grieve for her.

I was in awe that despite her own personal demons when someone needs help Tara is there to uncover the truth, that despite all the trauma she went through she is still a strong and determined woman deep inside. She is a wonderful character, one the reader can only look up to and admire. The supporting characters were once again well developed and fleshed out in detail. My favourite (of course) was the hero, Agent Li, whose quiet and powerful support was like an invisible pillar next to Tara, and it is testimony to Alayna Williams' talent that a character who was only present through its memory/spirit still remained one of the most dominant and palpable presence through the story.

I was once again amazed at the depth and wide range of the research Alayna Williams had conducted: she researched dark matter, atom physics, particle science, divination, astronomy and other such extreme fields which not many people have any knowledge about, and then went on to explain the basics so masterfully that even though I had no prior knowledge of any of these fields I wasn't lost in the midst of all the information, and what is more I positively enjoyed the intellectual challenge it presented!

The ending and the culmination of the story was like the quiet after the storm. Peaceful and calm, but knowing it is only for a short while before the clouds gather once again. I can't wait to revisit Tara and Harry again, to see where their relationship is going and how Tara is coping with her past and accepting her present.

Verdict: Dark Oracle is like none of the other novels I have ever read. It is a unique blend of spiritual and scientific world: dark matter and physics are explored in detail alongside divination, prophecies and oracles. But somehow these two completely contradictory areas which couldn't be more different still form an organic whole, and with Alayna Williams' metaphorical and emotional writing the result is once again a thrilling, action packed yet emotionally deep urban fantasy novel.

Plot: 9/10
Characters: 10/10
Writing: 10/10
Ending: 9/10
Cover: 8/10