Prophecy (Book)

 Prophecy

          Rick Riordan is a popular name among middle schools of the west. Therefore, it has quite a fan base in the east. Rick's domain is mythology. Greek mythology, Roman mythology, and Egyptian mythology. The Percy Jackson series explores the first one in great depth and the later part of the series explores the Roman. Finally, in the recently written Kane Chronicles, Rick takes a dive into Egyptian Mythology. A detailed version about this is available in the first blog post - The Trials of Apollo. 

          Prophecy by Ellen Oh has nothing, nada, kuch nhi to do with Rick Riordan's book. So why mention him?!? The world is so focused on European and American mythologies, that they forget to look beyond the Asian cultures and into their origin. Prophecy is a stepping stone to the endless exploration of Asian mythology for the west. Ellen Oh wanted a hero that her daughters could relate with. Being an immigrant to the US from Korea, this was a difficult task for her. Hence, Ellen wrote a book that represented Korean culture.

          Prophecy is the story of a girl who is different. She is a warrior, soldier, bodyguard, and an amazing sister. Her name is Kira. Kira's story lies between the time period 360 and 300 CE in ancient Korea. She was everything, that society didn't want a woman to be. Strong and fierce, Kira was the best soldier in the army and a personal bodyguard to the prince. She had a tiger spirit and the potential to command a dragon. To become everything she could, Kira had to constantly fight against society and its ideologies. Life was cruel to Kira, it pushed her and challenged her but Kira successfully overcame each obstacle while fulfilling her duties. Kira's story is different in today's society as well but for a different reason.

          Today, we are more accepting of a strong woman lead. Feminism has gained quite an understanding. One can safely hope that gender biases will reduce over time. However, many still remain intolerant of people of different cultures. Whenever we meet someone with a contrasting ideology, many of us take it as an attack on our views and ideas. There is a lack of acceptance and hence people chastise someone with a varying view. 

          I remember meeting Ellen Oh personally and listening to the challenges she had to face while getting her book published. Initially, the cover of Prophecy featured a Korean girl holding a red stone. However, the picture of a Korean girl on the cover limited the sales of the book. As soon as the cover was changed to simply a red stone, the sale of the book increased dramatically. I believe this shows our lack of interest in trying anything new. Thus, limiting our view of things, and ideas ultimately leads to intolerance and this needs to change.

Rating: 4/5