Official Review: The Theta Prophecy by Chris Dietzel

[Schmidtra92]

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Theta Prophecy" by Chris Dietzel.]

---

4 out of 4 stars

---

Share This Review

---

“The Theta Prophecy” by Chris Dietzel follows a lot of different storylines, all involving people from the year 2048, or the time that the Tyranny is in power. In the first book in this series, “The Theta Timeline,” only one man’s story is really told, and it is pretty depressing. In this book, however, we begin to see that not everyone has accepted the horrible acts committed by the Tyranny, and some people are still willing to stand up to them.

The story is told in a sort of jumpy fashion, which at some points was confusing because everything takes place in three very different time periods, but also kept things interesting. The book follows the lives of two different Thinkers (the rebel group who travels back in time in hopes of stopping the Tyranny from ever forming), a news reporter, and even the Ruler of the Tyranny. The first Thinker is sent back in time too far, way before he can attempt any of the actions that the Thinkers discussed for thwarting the Tyranny, but he refuses to accept that and comes up with a way to warn future generations of the dangers of not standing up for what you believe in while you still can. The second Thinker is sent back to the perfect time, right around the time that John F. Kennedy is supposed to be assassinated, and actually manages to change some things, although not in a very significant way. The news reporter, after spending her whole life looking the other way like everyone else, finally starts reporting the kinds of stories that can get her in trouble, the kind that the people deserve to know about. And the Ruler himself admits to his closest friend and advisor that he sometimes wishes things hadn’t turned out this way, and that he will never fully gain the trust of the people, because he can never change things without being overthrown as the Ruler.

My favorite thing about this book is that you finally get to see some people standing up to the Tyranny. In the first book, a couple of Thinkers risked their lives to go back in time and try to change things, but in the second book there are people (like the news reporter) who are trying to change the world in other ways, not looking into things that should have been done differently in the past, but at things that must be done differently in the present and future. Even the Ruler discusses ways that he could possibly change their current situation and regain some of the trust of the people. He eventually disregards these thoughts, but the fact that even the Ruler can see some things wrong with the system is promising.

The only thing I can say that I dislike about this book is how scary it is. When you read it you can see how this country could progress from having a President like JFK to a Ruler who monitors our every move and starts wars to make money. Obviously, not everything in the book is realistic (time travel, for instance, is impossible), but it is easy to see how corrupt people who are only looking out for themselves could turn this country into something awful.

I give this book 4 out of 4 stars. It was written in a very interesting style, jumping between time periods to keep the readers’ interest, and it had something that the first book lacked: hope. The first book indicated that only the Thinkers were willing to stand up for what was right, but this book showed that sometimes even in the most impossible of situations, someone will always stand up and try to do the right thing, no matter the cost.

******
The Theta Prophecy
View: on Bookshelves | on Barnes and Noble

Like Schmidtra92's review? Post a comment saying so!

[Dietzel]

Thanks for the great review. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

The Theta Prophecy will officially be released on Sept 28.

[gali]

Sounds like an interesting book, thank you.

[HalcyonFlower]

Kind of sounds like Looper but I'm probably way off. Thanks for the review, especially the last bit as that's what really piqued my interest!