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in: Oracles & Seers as main Supe, Set in Russia, Moscow, Siberia, Psychic Powers as Main Supe,
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Oracle series

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Dark Oracle (Oracle -1) by Alayna Williams

Dark Oracle (Oracle #1) by Alayna Williams—art by Chad Michael Ward

Rogue Oracle (Oracle

Rogue Oracle (Oracle #2) by Alayna Williams—art by Don Sipley

Oracle series, also called Delphic Oracle series or Tara Sheridan series — written by Alayna Williams. She also writes as Laura Bickle.  (Anya Kalinczyk series) 

Genres and Sub-Genres[]

Urban Fantasy / Contemporary Fantasy / Mystery / Paranormal Police Procedural

  • "fusion of science and urban fantasy"

Series Description or Overview[]

DARK ORACLE doesn’t read like your typical urban fantasy. It has more of a mystery or detective story feel. The everyday crime story combined with some hints of magic. I liked that the paranormal world in this series isn’t always upfront. You know it’s there, and that the oracles have some influence over the events of the world, but there’s still the possibility that choice and free will can change the forecasted future. There’s also quite a bit of focus on science, which isn’t usually something you find in urban fantasy. ~ Blog Tour Book Review: Dark Oracle

Fast paced, filled with great characters, action, mystery, and science with a touch of romance on the side. ~ Urban Fantasy Investigations

Book One Plot: Tara tracks down a missing scientist and discovers through her tarot readings that his daughter, Cassie, may hold key information and is in grave danger.

Book Two Plot: several ex Cold War intelligence operatives have gone missing. Their knowledge of uranium stockpiles is being sold, and there’s enough to lead to another Chernobyl.

Lead's Species[]

  • Oracle

Primary Supe[]

  • Psychics

What Sets it Apart[]

  • Mystery thriller with an oracle at the center.

Narrative Type and Narrators[]

  • Third person narrative — from Tara's perspective.

Books in Series[]

Dark Oracle series:

  1. Dark Oracle (2010) 
  2. Rogue Oracle (2011) 

Shorts, Anthologies and Guides[]

Other Series under Other Pen Name[]

Both under the name of Laura Bickle:

Anya Kalinczyk series:

  1. Embers (2010)
  2. Sparks (2010)

Hallowed Ones: (YA)

  1. The Hallowed Ones (2012)
  2. The Outside (2013)

World Building[]

Fang-tastic Fiction: Alayna Williams: DELPHIC ORACLE

Setting[]

New Mexico

Places:

  • Rome
  • Tyvek
  • Kiev
  • Ukraine
  • Washington
  • Tehran
  • Dulles
  • Minsk
  • Belarus
  • Chernobyl

Supernatural Elements[]

✥ Oracle, Psychics, Tarot cards, Delphi’s Daughters, Pythia, cartomancy (using tarot cards to read the future), alchemical lore, radioactive serial killer,

Glossary:[]

  • Pythia: Strongest of the modern Oracle's of Delphi, only she knows the true extent of Delphi's Daughters powers, losing her powers,

Groups & Organizations:[]

  • Delphi’s Daughters: secret society— existed since the beginning of recorded time.
  • Special Projects Division: asked Tara to help locate missing physicist

World[]

Delphi’s Daughters dedicated themselves to salvaging hidden things, to preserving the intellectual and physical lineages of esoteric knowledge since the time of the Oracle of Delphi. There had never seen men involved. It was always the women, whispering their arcane and alchemical lore from mother to daughter in unbroken chains spanning centuries. They trafficked in information and secrets, building empires of influence and knowledge, manipulating world events to their liking. And Tara, who had inherited her mother’s talents, remained a stubbornly broken link. She had refused to follow in her mother’s footsteps and join them. ~ Chapter one

Protagonist[]

Tara is the only woman to leave Delphi’s Daughters. Skilled in the art of cartomancy (using tarot cards to read the future), she used to work for the government as a profiler. After she got chewed up and spit out by a bad case, she left the Feds and the Daughters behind, wanting solitude and to live her own life. But when a scientist working on a deadly project disappears, Tara gets dragged back into the worlds she left. Clues to Tara’s past are sprinkled throughout the book, and build her character. She’s not the usual up-in-your-face, brash, kick-butt type of urban fantasy heroine. Tara is cautious. The clues of her past hint at something dark and horrible. ~ Blog Tour Book Review: Dark Oracle

The main character and storyteller is Tara who is an Oracle who gets her intuitions and predictions from her tarot cards. She uses her tarot cards throughout the story and everything is explained expertly to for better understanding of the tarot so the reader isn't completely lost. Tara is also a retired Criminal profiler so there is a ton of law enforcement type investigating. ~ Urban Fantasy Investigations

Sidekick[]

Name: / What: / Sidekick-to: / About: / Book First Seen In:

Characters Chart[]

Fang-tastic Fiction: Alayna Williams: DELPHIC ORACLE

Characters What About
Tara Sheridan criminal profiler Tarot card diviner; forensic psychologist; told she could never have children, claustrophobic,
Harry Li Agent teams with Tara on case; investigator for Special Projects; Department of Justice, Special Projects Division; love interest; listens to death metal;
Lowell Magnusson scientist, quantum physicist missing; Tara asked to look for him; developed technology with terrifying potential; working with immense powers: gravity, time, the void; on contract for the Department of Defense, divorced, Cassie is his daughter, raised in Ohio,
"Cassie", Cassiopeia Marie Magnusson Magnusson's daughter has knowledge that makes her a target too;
Richard Corvus chief of the Special Projects Division thinks Tara is unstable; Tara's weaselly former partner, and the arrogant Major Gabriel from the Defense Intelligence Agency; doesn't like Tara;
Sophia Delphi Daughter brought Tara the case of the missing Lowell Magnusson; last person to see Tara's mother alive, grey eyes,
Oscar cat Tara's cat; gold eyes;
Gabriel Major Defense Intelligence Agency; blue eyes;
Juliane Sheridan Pythia's successor Tara's mother, dead;
Martin Davis Harry's step-Dad Took Harry in when he was 9, became Harry's Dad, has early stage Parkinson's,
Adrienne Daughter of Delphi Youngest; motorcyclist, geomancer, out to kill Tara
Dr. Barbara DiRosa military Worked with Magnusson
Amos Dalton Gardener serial killer, almost killed Tara,
Maggie Magnusson's Chocolate Lab
Lena Ivanova
Carl Starkweather
Gerald Frost
Carrie Kirkman
Mrs. Starkweather

To expand the table, right-press or (Control-press on a Mac)—choose add row.

Alayna Williams

Alayna Williams

Author[]

Alayna Williams — Laura Bickle / Alana Williams

Bio: Alayna Williams has worked in the unholy trinity of politics, criminology, and technology for several years. She and her chief muse live in the Midwest, owned by four mostly-reformed feral cats.

Her work has been published in Midnight Times, Down in the Cellar, MicroHorror, Theaker's Quarterly Fiction,Ballista , Byzarium, New Myths,a Blog-O-Novella office soap opera for True Office Confessions, and Aoife's Kiss. Her most recent project is the Embers series of urban fantasy novels for Juno-Pocket Books.

Cover Artist[]

Publishing Information[]

  • Publisher: Pocket Books
  • Author Page:
  1. Dark Oracle: Paperback, 336 pages, Pub. 25th 2010—ISBN 1439182795
  2. Rogue Oracle:Paperback,360 pages,Pub. Feb 22nd 2011—ISBN

Book Cover Blurbs[]

✤ BOOK ONE—Dark Oracle (2010): TARA SHERIDAN HAS A GIFT . . . AND IT ALMOST KILLED HER. As a criminal profiler, Tara used science and her intuitive skill at Tarot card divination to track down the dangerous and depraved, including the serial killer who left her scarred from head to toe. Since that savage attack, Tara has been a recluse. But now an ancient secret society known as Delphi's Daughters has asked for her help in locating missing scientist Lowell Magnusson. And Tara, armed with her Tarot deck, her .38, and a stack of misgivings, agrees to try.

Tara immediately senses there is far more at stake than one man's life. At his government lab in the New Mexico desert, Magnusson had developed groundbreaking technology with terrifying potential. Working alongside the brusque but charismatic agent Harry Li, Tara discovers that Magnusson's daughter, Cassie, has knowledge that makes her a target too. The more Tara sees into the future, the more there is to fear. She knows she has to protect Cassie. But there may be no way to protect herself - from the enemies circling around her, or from the long-buried powers stirring to life within. ~ FF - Dark Oracle (Oracle series, book 1)

✤ BOOK TWO—Rogue Oracle (2011) : THE MORE YOU KNOW ABOUT THE FUTURE, THE MORE THERE MAY BE TO FEAR. Tara Sheridan is the best criminal profiler around—and the most unconventional. Trained as a forensic psychologist, Tara also specializes in Tarot card reading. But she doesn’t need her divination skills to realize that the new assignment from her friend and sometime lover, Agent Harry Li, is a dangerous proposition in every way.

Former Cold War operatives, all linked to a top-secret operation tracking the disposal of nuclear weapons in Russia, are disappearing. There are no bodies, and no clues to their whereabouts. Harry suspects a conspiracy to sell arms to the highest bidder. The cards—and Tara’s increasingly ominous dreams—suggest something darker. Even as Tara sorts through her feelings for Harry and her fractured relationship with the mysterious order known as Delphi’s Daughters, a killer is growing more ruthless by the day. And a nightmare that began decades ago in Chernobyl will reach a terrifying endgame that not even Tara could have foreseen. ~ Goodreads

First Sentences[]

  1. Dark Oracle (2010) — The air seethed, like a living thing disturbed.
  2. Rogue Oracle (2011) — HE’D DO anything to hear those voices again.

Quotes[]

Trivia[]

Special:

Awards[]

Read Alikes (suggestions)[]

— If you like these, you may like this:

Notes[]

See Also[]

External References[]

Books:

Summaries,

World, Characters, etc:

Reviews:

Interviews: 

Author—Alayna Williams:

Community, Fan Sites:

Gallery of Book Covers[]

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