The Oracle Virus From Paul Michael Privateer Points An Allegorical Finger at the New Order of American Politics
Seattle, WA, April 12, 2017 (Newswire.com)
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Digital Book Guild announces its first novel with proceeds going to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
Digital Book Guild is an non-profit publisher attracting writers willing to donate some or all of their proceeds to various charities. Paul Michael Privateer’s Oracle Virus is the first release in this effort.
Reviewers and readers have said the Oracle Virus has a fast-paced plot that moves through bizarre serial murders, kidnappings, betrayal and deceit with a jolting tension running through the story to the end in Washington DC. The violent climax between nature and man, the fake fog of Washington D.C. politics, Kafkaesque intrigue, and epic battles collide allegorically, leading readers down the America’s truth resistant political rabbit hole, with an orange haired real estate tycoon guide. The book has nothing and everything to do with the Oracle, not Larry’ Ellison’s but America’s.
Other have enjoyed it as the first “Google-assist read”. They’ve stated that while surface action pleases pop readers hooked on hybrid international thriller-sci-fi mysteries, there is a below resembling a Lynch ecosystem reminiscent of Borges, Kafka, Hesse, Updike, Rushdie, Kidman, Antonioni, Greenville, Ihimaera, Adichie, and Abani. The Oracle Virus invents a new genre—hyperallegorical realism. The deeper a reader dives in the more The Oracle Virus reveals itself as postcolonial fiction, a cautionary tale of the effects of Trumpian politics, dressed up as a blockbuster.
Others insist that Privateer has created a novel that reads like a movie and is in a league with the likes of John Le Carre (and British intelligence), John Grisham (and legal acumen), Dan Brown (and religious intrigue), and Patricia Cornwell (and Forensic Science).
Digital Book Guild believes it has a winner given responses that suggest the novel is flat out the most intense sci-fi mystery and beat political thriller offered up in a decade, a novel in which readers travel through two centuries, fly in and out of exotic world capitols and meet renegade Nazis, meet a computer genius, Dark Web cave dwellers, Shaolin priests, Interpol’s toughest agents, strange prophets, and then meet Jack Kavanaugh, a modern hybrid of Sherlock Holmes and Jason Bourne, only smarter and stronger.
The first reviewer’s comments are about the novel’s realism: “This sci-fi mystery thriller is set in the present, save for opening Hitler Nazi flashbacks. I say this in case a prospective reader expects star travel. The description and praise stated in the synopsis is accurate. Parts of the “science fiction” aspect of the book’s storyline are increasingly believable, given ever-expanding bio-technology. Scary! I tend to Google items I find in fiction, to learn how fictitious some story features are. I found that seriously-sized drone apocalyptic delivery vehicles used in the scary climax are available. Privateer spins an engaging mystery thriller. His social awareness is a plus. All proceeds are to go St Jude Children’s Hospital, cancer research division.”
The editorial board agrees that the Oracle Virus is a very unusual, advanced high-tech detective story that combines science-fiction, detective, thriller, and romance. The story starts out meticulously and then becomes a real page turner.
The cover provides a good overview: The Oracle Virus nerve blasts its way into being a classic sci-fi thriller with substantial philosophic insight. It doesn’t brake a nanosecond for Hitchcock twists or Phillip K. Dick’s paranoia. Page one is a rabbit hole: why is there a fake Gestapo assassination of Hitler or is there? How does a secret genetics lab survive WWII bombings? Can a machine named Mediatron create reality? Or can a nanovirus control our minds? How is a serial geek murder, a hurricane headed toward D.C., a whale stranding, the kidnapping of world presidents, a bloody fight atop the Washington Monument and a secret Louisiana rogue organization all be connected? Or are they?
They found that Privateer’s social awareness was a plus with proceeds going to St Jude’s Children’s’ Hospital, cancer research division. The Oracle Virus may be the first novel ever in its charity goal is announced on the title page.
Author Bio
Paul Michael Privateer was born in New York, served in the United States Air Force, and is interested in intersections between literature, media, and science/information technology. His books include Romantic Voices and Inventing Intelligence, and many of his journal articles deal with the cultural and political effects of cyberspace, digital technology, and corporate media. Privateer has taught at San Jose State, the University of Southern Mississippi, Georgia Institute of Technology and Arizona State University. The University of Geneva, Stanford, and MIT offered him a Fulbright and visiting professorships. He has appeared in the New York Times and on CNN, PBS, ABC, NPR, and BBC4 given his work on education reform, citizen service, and the digital future.
His fiction focuses on the most basic aspects of being human: love, passion, fidelity, identity, taboos, social alienation, insecurity and death. His next novels, A Woman in Love and The Nightmare Collector explore the limits of digital media and hyperreal minimalism.
His fiction is about fiction. His recent novel, The Oracle Virus, pays sometimes subtle homage to McFarlane, Shakespeare, Hugo, Dickens, Woolf, Kafka, Hardy, Melville, Camus, Steinbeck, Beckett, Borges, Dick, Auster, Angelou, Ellison, Roth, Gibson and many others whose influences ultimately make serious fiction writing a ritual gathering of ghosts. This respect and fascination began with his favorite childhood game: Authors.
Privateer lives in the Pacific Northwest and is engaged in socially conscious initiatives. He is founder of NoSchoolViolence.org and Seattle Data for Good. He kayaks, likes trekking Puget Sound islands and the Olympic Peninsula with Nell, a curious but cautiously social black lab. For some unknown reason, she doesn’t sniff everyone’s hand.
More info:
The Oracle Virus
paulprivateer.com
Contact
Tara Reynolds
Marketing Staff
DBP
206.319.3578
Source: Digital Book Guild
