A review by mcdermottcecelia
The Art of Prophecy by Wesley Chu

adventurous challenging dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

Ahh, unfortunately, this book wasn’t for me! The Art of Prophecy by Wesley Chu that follows a prophecy-selected student and an expert battle trainer in this epic fantasy novel that is the start of the War Arts Saga. Going into this book, I was expecting the mentor relationship between Juan and Taishi to play a more major role in the plot or general framing of the novel based on the description, so I think I set myself up for disappointment when the majority of the plot ended up being pretty differently focused. I really enjoyed reading that dynamic in R. F. Kuang’s The Poppy War last year, so I was hoping The Art of Prophecy would itch the same part of my brain. As such, the main chunk of the novel fell a little flat for me since the book went in a different direction, but it wasn’t until the last quarter of the novel that I really started getting engaged in the action. It felt like this book was really setting up more action for later novels in the series, but I’m unsure if I’ll give those a shot based on this first book. This is by no means a bad read, but I’d make sure you’re in the right mood and mindset for a political epic war fantasy story before giving this a shot. I can see how other readers have enjoyed this novel, but again, it just wasn’t my cup of tea. 

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for providing me with a digital ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review!