Prophet

From the extraordinary minds of award-winning and New York Times-bestselling author of H Is for Hawk Helen Macdonald and first time author Sin Blach�, Prophet is their electric debut, a tantalizing adventure fusing noir, sci-fi and a slow burn queer romance--set in a universe just one perilous step from our own. 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.

Finalist for Foreword INDIES Best Science Fiction Book of the Year A Shelf Awareness 10 Best Fiction Books of the Year Selection A Locus Recommended Reading PickA Best Book of the Year from Book Riot, Scientific American and the New York Public LibraryA Best Book of Summer from TIME, Amazon, New Scientist, Literary Hub and Marie ClaireA Most Anticipated Book of 2023 from Literary Hub and BookPage"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, Best Book of 2023 "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 Blach� 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 Blach�, 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 o

Helen Macdonald is a writer, poet, and naturalist. They are the author of the bestselling H Is for Hawk and Vesper Flights along with Shaler's Fish, a history of falconry, and two other books of poetry. They've written and presented award-winning TV documentaries for PBS and the BBC. Prophet is their first novel.Sin Blach� is an author and musician. They have been writing horror and sci-fi stories all their life. Prophet is their first novel. Born in California, they live in the North West of Ireland and can be found obsessing over obscure folk instruments, being an ambivalent savior to feral cats, and playing too many video games.