Review of The Prophecy of the Heron

[Elsa Klingensmith-Parnell]

[Following is a volunteer review of "The Prophecy of the Heron" by Craig W. Stanfill.]

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4 out of 5 stars

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This was a delightful read! The Prophecy of the Heron continues the story Stanfill started in Terms of Service, adding to the vibrant world he created. Kim is a former AI engineer who has been condemned for genderism and refuses to submit to the control of societal pressure. Having been essentially exiled to the roughest, most dangerous area, Kim gets to experience life on the other side of the tracks. As she learns and adapts, she finds information about the original creators of the AI that controls society. Interestingly, I found this sequel more enjoyable than the first! The way that civilization was fleshed out as Kim is sent to different areas really helped me to believe in the world in a way that I never did in the first, where Kim stayed in the upper echelon of society. While there are still some tiny complaints that I have that carry over from the first novel, I give The Prophecy of the Heron a rating of 4 out of 5 stars.

I only noticed a handful of editing and proofreading errors, almost all of which concerned comma usage. For the most part this did not affect my experience reading the book, but it might bother some readers. In the first book I was bothered by the inconsistent usage of pronouns, which continues in this book as well. In order to discourage “selfism,” people are discouraged from (as it is put a few times in the book) “dropping the I-bomb.” Instead, individuals use plural pronouns (instead of “I” they say “we”) and referring to yourself as an individual ought to indicate dangerous levels of subversion. However, there are several points in the book where characters use singular pronouns to refer to themselves and it does not seem to be intentional, which disconnected me from the world of the novel.

Once again, the details that Stanfill includes in the novel and the engaging way that he imagines artificial intelligence make this book a must read for fans of science fiction and especially artificial intelligence. There are some amazing twists in the second half of this book that will have me thinking about the fallout and the implications for a while. Overall, I highly recommend this book.

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The Prophecy of the Heron
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