The Ophelia Prophecy by Sharon Lynn Fisher

Published by Tor Books on April 1, 2014

The Ophelia Prophecy is more akin to a trashy romance novel than a serious work of science fiction. It isn't what I expected from a reliable publisher like Tor. The novel might appeal to fans of romance who are willing to overlook its shortcomings. It didn't work for me.

Asha St. John, an Archivist who studies information that was collected by a crazy survivalist named Ophelia before the Bio Holocaust, lives in Sanctuary near Moab, Utah. One day she finds herself at the reservoir -- with no memory of how she arrived there --- where she meets Augustus Paxton (Pax), a member of a genetically engineered race called the Manti that conquered humanity. Pax and his sister Iris are the product of a mixture of human and insect DNA. Pax grabs Asha and makes off with her in a Scarab. A Scarab is a living mixture of plant and insect DNA and Artificial Intelligence that flies. Scarabs routinely patrol the skies to contain settlements where the human survivors of the Bio Holocaust dwell. The settlements are in inhospitable places like Moab and a bog in Ireland. A human resident of the bog named Beck is leading a resistance movement. Why don't the Manti just kill the few remaining humans and be done with them? Because then there would be no story. The residents of Sanctuary, being none too bright, believe the bugs are afraid of rock formations (!) but the real reason remains a mystery for the first third the novel.

The rest of the novel involves Pax's conflict with his father (who happen to be the transgenics' ruler) and Asha's conflict with her mother (who isn't very nice) and Asha's attempt to reunite with her father (who is encouraging a quarrelsome splinter group of transgenics). The novel's primary focus, however, centers on Asha's feelings for Pax, who for much of the novel is holding her captive and resisting his instinctive urge to ravage her (an instinct that perhaps explains why mosquitoes want to be near us). Eventually the plot devolves into "Can a human girl find true love with a bug-like transgenic?" Asha's stomach flutters (and not because she wants to vomit) whenever Pax says "we" or "us." Sometimes her heart quivers or "the machinery of her brain" locks up when she sees him. This sounds like a medical condition, but Asha is apparently so desperate that she's falling in love with a bug-boy who is constantly battling his urge to rape her. I suppose there's a severe shortage of eligible bachelors in Sanctuary, what with humanity being almost wiped out by transgenics, but still.

The Ophelia Prophecy is not a novel of praiseworthy prose, so any merit it has must be found in the story and its characters. Unfortunately, there is little worth finding unless you are a fan of dull, predictable romance novels. Long-winded arguments between characters are too often relied upon to advance the plot. A scene that requires Aisha to choose between Pax and her father is resolved too conveniently. The concept of trangenics raises profound ethical questions and while The Ophelia Prophecy purports to explore them, it does so in simplistic terms. For the most part, philosophy is secondary to a contrived plot that pits "science as religion" against "anti-science as religion." The secret of Sanctuary's survival is hard to swallow, but that can be said about much of this novel, including the reason for Asha's memory loss. The Bio Holocaust isn't carefully explained. There was, of course, a plague; fortunately it produced no zombies. We're told that "garage labs" created transgenics like giant wasps that threaten not only humans but other transgenics but how any of that happened is left for the reader to imagine.

The Ophelia Prophecy is probably meant to be a metaphorical novel in which people separated by their differences reach out to each other, bridging the gap because they understand their fundamental similarities (including sexual desire). I think the story is also supposed to be a metaphor for oppression, particularly of native peoples (with, for instance, "trail of terror" substituted for "trail of tears"), and the rebel movements that oppression breeds. I give Sharon Lynn Fisher credit for having big ideas but they aren't well developed. Had more attention been given to building the story's background and less to describing Asha's fluttering stomach and quivering heart, this could have been a better novel. Even then, I would have difficulty accepting Asha's love for Pax, which seems to be based on nothing more than "he wants me."

NOT RECOMMENDED