Blot out the copy-books

I am not a prophecy person. I can't stand astrology, and, for me, a prophecy is just about the worst plot instrument a writer can use. I loved Harry Potter until Rowling brought the prophecy in. And I still think there was nothing new in the prophecy. I mean, we all knew Harry had to face Voldy and only one would survive.

One series where the prophecy has been used well is Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series. Nice, bringing in the Oracle. We didn't know which kid of the big three was the one in the prophecy. Besides, the Oracle of Delphi had a nasty twist in all her predictions, most of which simply couldn't be interpreted.

So, why did I pick up Mario Reading's The Nostradamus Prophecies? I had rough week at work and, on an impulse, walked to the bookshop during lunch, and came back with the first book I saw. This. Plus, I fell for the blurb: "Nostradamus wrote 1,000 prophecies. Only 942 have survived. What happened to the missing verses? And what secrets did they contain?"

Whether you believe in prophecies or not, you want to know what the missing 58 say. And where and why they were hidden. The book began and continued well, with the race for the verses between the protagonist, the antagonist and the villain. For someone who enjoys hidden object games, this is one of my favourite genres. James Rollins, Andy McDermott, Steve Berry, Matthew Reilly, Sam Bourne and the rest, I love. They don't fall into the same droning plots with every book. Secrets, mysteries and conspiracies, yes, but each book is completely different from the others and offers something new.

Back to Reading. Until they find the prophecies--braving death and torture--all goes well and I had my heart in my mouth. But the content of the verses is, for me, claptrap. A subject writers have dealt with ad nauseam.

The problem in the publishing industry is that, once Dan Brown became a success, everyone wanted to write about ancient secrets, deadly conspiracies to protect (or discover) the secrets, and innocent protagonists who solved ciphers, puzzles and anagrams to uncover them. Even Robin Cook switched over from medical thrillers to Dan Brown territory in Intervention. Enough already!

We've seen plots seeking the remains of Mary Magdalene, Alexander the Great, the Romanovs, Atlantis and Mother Mary, explaining the seven wonders, the Domesday Book, Nostradamus, the Aztecs, freemasons, Abraham and the Delphic Oracle, braving opposition from the Church, and villains looking to purge the world of genetic defects. What next?

After Harry Potter came a spate of fantasies, and after Twilight came a whole horde of paranormal fiction. Those trends have waned, but the post-Dan Brown trend is very much alive. I say the publishing industry does something about this and introduce some originality. Or else, we may see the thriller genre die a boring death.

Next week: avoid beginning a sentence with 'and'.