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The Oracle's Journal
Suddenly, it's a world flooded with magic and danger draws closer with every passing second. When the powers of sixteen gods are inherited by four teenagers, destruction is not far behind.
In Maxton City, everything changes in the blink of an eye. When a portal to the Chaos Realm - a place of torment, a world of horrors - opens up over Maxton City Park, the monsters begin to appear. Then comes the First Queen of Earth.
Unbeknownst to anyone, four teenagers have found the means to battling these enemies deep in the Cradle of Humankind. They have found the Amulets of the Spirits, artefacts that house the souls of long-dead gods and grant the four powers beyond their wildest dreams, creating the new Guardians. Using these amulets, they can take the forms of the gods, and wield power that would incinerate mortals. But even that might not be enough...
Serena, the First Queen, the Demon Queen, is searching for the most powerful artefact in existence, an artefact capable of granting the power of a god: The Oracle's Journal. If she ascends, then not even the guardians can stop her.
And there'll be no gods to help them for what comes next...
In Maxton City, everything changes in the blink of an eye. When a portal to the Chaos Realm - a place of torment, a world of horrors - opens up over Maxton City Park, the monsters begin to appear. Then comes the First Queen of Earth.
Unbeknownst to anyone, four teenagers have found the means to battling these enemies deep in the Cradle of Humankind. They have found the Amulets of the Spirits, artefacts that house the souls of long-dead gods and grant the four powers beyond their wildest dreams, creating the new Guardians. Using these amulets, they can take the forms of the gods, and wield power that would incinerate mortals. But even that might not be enough...
Serena, the First Queen, the Demon Queen, is searching for the most powerful artefact in existence, an artefact capable of granting the power of a god: The Oracle's Journal. If she ascends, then not even the guardians can stop her.
And there'll be no gods to help them for what comes next...
- GenresFantasy
1026 pages, Paperback
Published November 14, 2018
2 people are currently reading
343 people want to read
About the author
Dimitri Liountris
5 books11 followers“This is an inspirational quote about following your dreams and writing like you’ll actually breathe life into a new world with your words, which Dimitri hopes will one day become famous enough to be mistakenly attributed to someone else, like John Oliver, or Charles Dickens.” – Dimitri Liountris.
Dimitri was born in Johannesburg, South Africa. As a child, he was immediately drawn to all things fantasy and sci-fi, and as he grew up, he began to create his own stories inside his mind. As time went on, he began to realise that there were too many ideas in his head and that he needed to put them onto paper. And so, he began typing his first story, a Dragonball Z fanfiction.
It. Was. Garbage.
But as time went on, his skills improved, his stories got better, and he decided that it was time to try and write an original story. And so, the real journey began, with Dimitri attempting to craft a bigger story. A journey that was filled with fun, and imagination, and tons of swearing. However, with a lot of support, he finally managed to create a book that was as long as time itself – but filled to the brim with magic, action, and fun worlds.
Dimitri now has published his first ever novel in paperback and ebook form, and plans to have many more coming down the pipe-line. Aside from his novels and Author's Website, Dimitri has three other blogs devoted to short stories, his own personal thoughts, and activities that help others write their own works of fiction.
Dimitri has an Honours Degree in Criminology – and hopefully will have his Masters by the end of 2019 – and while he does not write crime/mystery novels (yet), he has found the degree immensely helpful in researching information for stories and in understanding people in order to make relatable characters.
Dimitri is also immensely grateful that you have reached this far in the About Author section, and as such, he wishes you all the best and hopes you’ll have a fun time looking around the site and immersing yourself into his worlds.
Feel free to ask questions. Seriously, he loves talking about his stories. Actually, don’t ask questions. We’ll be here all week. (But ask anyway).
….
….
….
Okay… so I don’t know how to end this, and I’m switching point-of-view. This is embarrassing.
So… goodbye.
Have a great day.
Dimitri was born in Johannesburg, South Africa. As a child, he was immediately drawn to all things fantasy and sci-fi, and as he grew up, he began to create his own stories inside his mind. As time went on, he began to realise that there were too many ideas in his head and that he needed to put them onto paper. And so, he began typing his first story, a Dragonball Z fanfiction.
It. Was. Garbage.
But as time went on, his skills improved, his stories got better, and he decided that it was time to try and write an original story. And so, the real journey began, with Dimitri attempting to craft a bigger story. A journey that was filled with fun, and imagination, and tons of swearing. However, with a lot of support, he finally managed to create a book that was as long as time itself – but filled to the brim with magic, action, and fun worlds.
Dimitri now has published his first ever novel in paperback and ebook form, and plans to have many more coming down the pipe-line. Aside from his novels and Author's Website, Dimitri has three other blogs devoted to short stories, his own personal thoughts, and activities that help others write their own works of fiction.
Dimitri has an Honours Degree in Criminology – and hopefully will have his Masters by the end of 2019 – and while he does not write crime/mystery novels (yet), he has found the degree immensely helpful in researching information for stories and in understanding people in order to make relatable characters.
Dimitri is also immensely grateful that you have reached this far in the About Author section, and as such, he wishes you all the best and hopes you’ll have a fun time looking around the site and immersing yourself into his worlds.
Feel free to ask questions. Seriously, he loves talking about his stories. Actually, don’t ask questions. We’ll be here all week. (But ask anyway).
….
….
….
Okay… so I don’t know how to end this, and I’m switching point-of-view. This is embarrassing.
So… goodbye.
Have a great day.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
September 28, 2019
Four teenagers live a very normal life until they find amulets in which the power of the sixteen gods are contained. They become The Guardians, are trained in magic and have to protect the earth against a queen, her knights, a whole variety of monsters and many demons.
My expectations for The Oracle's Journal were high and it didn’t disappoint. There are a few downsides but they are outweighted by the good parts of the book.
First of all, the worldbuilding in the book is huge. Dimitri didn’t just write a story in the present, he made a whole world around it. Every character – especially the ones that have been around for thousands of years – has his or her own story and Dimitri takes his time to tell them. Not everything at once, but often in a clever way where the story of the present and the past intertwine.
The fact that every character has his or her own story has also three other big advantages. First of all, there are a lot of characters. Normally when there are a lot of characters in a book I find it confusing to remember who is who. But because all the characters are properly introduced, not all at once, with their own backstory, I can easily tell them apart. In other words: the characters are very memorable. They all add something extra to the story, they all are important so all deserve some attention and a background.
The second advantage of the backstories is that this book has some of the best antagonists I’ve ever seen. Because you get to know their background, you understand why they do what they do. They aren’t evil for the sake of being evil, it’s much more complex than that. This also results in an interesting dynamic between some of the antagonists and ‘good guys’. They are on opposite sides but still can feel empathy for one another or even – when the situation gets really desperate – fight together against an even bigger threat. For me, personally, it’s so refreshing to read something like this. They can hate each other and still make rational decisions about what they should do.
Lastly, the author uses a lot of different POV’s. That can be often confusing but because we know the characters so well, it works. I know from who’s POV I’m reading and I know how they think. This gives the story a lot of depth in a way I’ve not very often seen.
So these are all very great things. However, there were two things that took away some of the credibility of the book and made it sometimes feel like a long read:
First, the book is really long. Most of the time, I didn’t notice that, but sometimes – especially at the beginning – the fighting parts were too long. Almost every punch was described. I suppose that Dimitri saw it all happening in his head, as if it were a movie, but it was hard to read through. I found myself scanning these scenes, to see if something major happend and who was winning, but not really reading it. This improved in the second part of the book, where the fighting wasn’t described as detailed as earlier.
The second thing is also about the fighting. Opponents were always each others equal. That gives an interesting fight: a fight where someone is one hit KO is not very interesting. On the other hand: it isn’t very believable when person A is succesfully fighting off four people at the same time with little to no help, but the next time that person A meets the same four people, she only has to take it up against one of those four people and now these two people are again each other’s equal. Almost every fight ended in a draw so that was weird and unbelievable to read.
Like I said the book is very long but most of the time I didn’t even notice that. He has a nice writingstyle so it’s easy to read. Every now and then there also is some great humor in the book – not very much but when it is there, it makes that page even nicer to read:
“He raised himself slowly, sitting on the bed as he watched Laguna reading a book he was unfamiliar with. It must have been one they had stolen in an effort to understand this time. The books did not help. They handled mages that they called wizards and dark ones, and things called vampires who loved young women, and games about being hungry that had nothing to do with food. The only books that Malik found decent were history books, though even those were difficult for him to understand. Laguna was now reading something about different shades of the colour grey. His frown told Malik everything he needed to know.”
Because we can understand the references to the book, it is funny to read. There are also some great one-liners in it, but you’ll have to read the book yourself to find all those funny bits!
In conclusion: the fightings scenes are often too detailed and therefore too long. They are also unbelievable because opponents are always each others equal, even when it doesn’t make sense.
The rest of the book is amazing and it all works exellent together: the big background and history of characters makes those characters very believable, memorable and real. As a result of the background, the antagonists are amazing and one of the best I have ever read about. So I will definitely recommend this book to everyone who loves fantasy and doesn’t mind a long book!
(4.5 out of 5 stars because it wasn’t perfect yet, but 4.5 is rounded up to 5 stars on Goodreads)
(I want to thank @BookTasters for the oppertunity to read the amazing 'The Oracle's Journal'!)
My expectations for The Oracle's Journal were high and it didn’t disappoint. There are a few downsides but they are outweighted by the good parts of the book.
First of all, the worldbuilding in the book is huge. Dimitri didn’t just write a story in the present, he made a whole world around it. Every character – especially the ones that have been around for thousands of years – has his or her own story and Dimitri takes his time to tell them. Not everything at once, but often in a clever way where the story of the present and the past intertwine.
The fact that every character has his or her own story has also three other big advantages. First of all, there are a lot of characters. Normally when there are a lot of characters in a book I find it confusing to remember who is who. But because all the characters are properly introduced, not all at once, with their own backstory, I can easily tell them apart. In other words: the characters are very memorable. They all add something extra to the story, they all are important so all deserve some attention and a background.
The second advantage of the backstories is that this book has some of the best antagonists I’ve ever seen. Because you get to know their background, you understand why they do what they do. They aren’t evil for the sake of being evil, it’s much more complex than that. This also results in an interesting dynamic between some of the antagonists and ‘good guys’. They are on opposite sides but still can feel empathy for one another or even – when the situation gets really desperate – fight together against an even bigger threat. For me, personally, it’s so refreshing to read something like this. They can hate each other and still make rational decisions about what they should do.
Lastly, the author uses a lot of different POV’s. That can be often confusing but because we know the characters so well, it works. I know from who’s POV I’m reading and I know how they think. This gives the story a lot of depth in a way I’ve not very often seen.
So these are all very great things. However, there were two things that took away some of the credibility of the book and made it sometimes feel like a long read:
First, the book is really long. Most of the time, I didn’t notice that, but sometimes – especially at the beginning – the fighting parts were too long. Almost every punch was described. I suppose that Dimitri saw it all happening in his head, as if it were a movie, but it was hard to read through. I found myself scanning these scenes, to see if something major happend and who was winning, but not really reading it. This improved in the second part of the book, where the fighting wasn’t described as detailed as earlier.
The second thing is also about the fighting. Opponents were always each others equal. That gives an interesting fight: a fight where someone is one hit KO is not very interesting. On the other hand: it isn’t very believable when person A is succesfully fighting off four people at the same time with little to no help, but the next time that person A meets the same four people, she only has to take it up against one of those four people and now these two people are again each other’s equal. Almost every fight ended in a draw so that was weird and unbelievable to read.
Like I said the book is very long but most of the time I didn’t even notice that. He has a nice writingstyle so it’s easy to read. Every now and then there also is some great humor in the book – not very much but when it is there, it makes that page even nicer to read:
“He raised himself slowly, sitting on the bed as he watched Laguna reading a book he was unfamiliar with. It must have been one they had stolen in an effort to understand this time. The books did not help. They handled mages that they called wizards and dark ones, and things called vampires who loved young women, and games about being hungry that had nothing to do with food. The only books that Malik found decent were history books, though even those were difficult for him to understand. Laguna was now reading something about different shades of the colour grey. His frown told Malik everything he needed to know.”
Because we can understand the references to the book, it is funny to read. There are also some great one-liners in it, but you’ll have to read the book yourself to find all those funny bits!
In conclusion: the fightings scenes are often too detailed and therefore too long. They are also unbelievable because opponents are always each others equal, even when it doesn’t make sense.
The rest of the book is amazing and it all works exellent together: the big background and history of characters makes those characters very believable, memorable and real. As a result of the background, the antagonists are amazing and one of the best I have ever read about. So I will definitely recommend this book to everyone who loves fantasy and doesn’t mind a long book!
(4.5 out of 5 stars because it wasn’t perfect yet, but 4.5 is rounded up to 5 stars on Goodreads)
(I want to thank @BookTasters for the oppertunity to read the amazing 'The Oracle's Journal'!)
August 24, 2019
Before getting into this, I'd like to thank BookTasters on twitter for this opportunity.
The Oracle's Journal is one that takes time to get through. It isn't going to be read in one sitting. There were multiple times when I had to go back and reread paragraphs and pages because of what happened. So much information is getting thrown at you that it is hard to keep track at some points. There are twists and turns from the moment the action starts till the last page.
While there are 50 chapters, they are also long. At times, I thought the chapter never ended. Within each chapter, it changes perspectives multiple times, which I'm personally not a fan of.
The characters in this book are great. Each one is given their own personality. The four guardians are Blake, Monique, Jen, and Eric. While they are the main characters, there are side characters who shouldn't be pushed to the side.
Normally, my first impression of a character doesn't change. However, with this, they kept changing. Especially with the Knights. They're background really changed my perspective on each of them. I sympathized with them at times and it helped me to understand who they are in present day and why they're doing what they're doing.
Throughout the book, there were times when a word is either missing or spelled wrong, making it hard to understand the sentence. It also took a while to figure it out.
I would highly recommend this book to people. It's one of my favorites that I read this year. There are many times when I laughed and stressed (in a good way) over what was happening.
The Oracle's Journal is one that takes time to get through. It isn't going to be read in one sitting. There were multiple times when I had to go back and reread paragraphs and pages because of what happened. So much information is getting thrown at you that it is hard to keep track at some points. There are twists and turns from the moment the action starts till the last page.
While there are 50 chapters, they are also long. At times, I thought the chapter never ended. Within each chapter, it changes perspectives multiple times, which I'm personally not a fan of.
The characters in this book are great. Each one is given their own personality. The four guardians are Blake, Monique, Jen, and Eric. While they are the main characters, there are side characters who shouldn't be pushed to the side.
Normally, my first impression of a character doesn't change. However, with this, they kept changing. Especially with the Knights. They're background really changed my perspective on each of them. I sympathized with them at times and it helped me to understand who they are in present day and why they're doing what they're doing.
Throughout the book, there were times when a word is either missing or spelled wrong, making it hard to understand the sentence. It also took a while to figure it out.
I would highly recommend this book to people. It's one of my favorites that I read this year. There are many times when I laughed and stressed (in a good way) over what was happening.
August 28, 2019
The Oracle's Journal is a fantastic, sit-on-the-edge-of-your-seat book. All the events are so brilliantly linked to one another even when it seems like they might not be. The author has truly thought every plot point through and this is something I highly, highly appreciate. The writing is not perfect but I have to say that that is what makes it beautiful sometimes. You learn to love each character for their strengths and flaws alike. The magic is simply amazing and there is not enough that I can say about this book. It is quite the lengthy read but definitely worth it. Highly, highly recommend.
August 3, 2019
A long read that took me some time to revisit some pages to make sure I got the correct context. But even though it is a long read I really enjoy the plot and so much twist that I want to read more.
August 24, 2019
A fantastic book to read! Absolutely loved it and I can't wait for the second one! The author made an excellent job balancing the description level with the fast-pace fighting parts. It is a long book, but worth every page and hour invested in it. I guarantee you won't want to stop reading for a second and will even devour the epilogues!
July 10, 2019
The Oracle's Journal was a longer read than I expected. I must first appreciate the efforts that Dimitri has put into this wonderful piece.
It had all the fantasy elements knitted well but I felt the story execution is slightly a miss. I found few chapters a little distracting and the characters were too many to catch-up. I revisited some chapters to ensure that I actually got the complete context.
Coming to the story,
The plot and the overall storyline is great, kept me wanting to read more. Specially the guardians, how they were chosen, the powers that they carried. The history of the Amulets, finding the Oracle and the Oracle's Journal. The power play, treason, betrayal, were some well timed twists.
I took some good time going to the epilogue and I am waiting for more works from Dimitri.
It had all the fantasy elements knitted well but I felt the story execution is slightly a miss. I found few chapters a little distracting and the characters were too many to catch-up. I revisited some chapters to ensure that I actually got the complete context.
Coming to the story,
The plot and the overall storyline is great, kept me wanting to read more. Specially the guardians, how they were chosen, the powers that they carried. The history of the Amulets, finding the Oracle and the Oracle's Journal. The power play, treason, betrayal, were some well timed twists.
I took some good time going to the epilogue and I am waiting for more works from Dimitri.
September 6, 2019
I absolutely adored this book. It was really well-put and I adored the characters. I loved how they felt real, that they weren't a Mary-Sue or something that felt distant to the reader. I could actually live through them. It IS a long book, something I can have problems with, but this really made me invested and kept my attention to the last second. I actually also really liked the writing-style. It really helped with forming a beautiful world. I really enjoyed this book. I do need to say (just like a most people said before me) that even though I really enjoyed it, it was sometimes hard to take in all the information, especially since I have a busy life and read to relax, it can be a lot.
I don't really mind long chapters, but sometimes they were a but too long. It's the only think that kept the book from a 4 to a 5.
I don't really mind long chapters, but sometimes they were a but too long. It's the only think that kept the book from a 4 to a 5.
March 8, 2020
Let me start by saying that this is a really really long book. Most fantasy books are usually on the longer side of the spectrum so that's not such a big issue here. The biggest struggle for me was the pace of the book. It's way too long and way too slow. After a point it was actually painful to finish reading it.
The plot itself is interesting and has a lot going on. There are a lot of characters and you can see how they evolve with the story. The suspense around magical aspects builds over the book and stays interesting.
There are some spelling and grammar issues throughout the book. At some places it's not so noticable and we can understand the sentences by the context. Unfortunately there are some sections where the sentences are so badly written that it was difficult to understand the meaning. I just had to give up and move on from the sections.
The book would have been much more enjoyable if it was a little shorter. Pick up this book to enjoy the magical fantasy woven by the author but make sure to pack a lot of patience if you want to finish it.
The plot itself is interesting and has a lot going on. There are a lot of characters and you can see how they evolve with the story. The suspense around magical aspects builds over the book and stays interesting.
There are some spelling and grammar issues throughout the book. At some places it's not so noticable and we can understand the sentences by the context. Unfortunately there are some sections where the sentences are so badly written that it was difficult to understand the meaning. I just had to give up and move on from the sections.
The book would have been much more enjoyable if it was a little shorter. Pick up this book to enjoy the magical fantasy woven by the author but make sure to pack a lot of patience if you want to finish it.
March 26, 2020
It was a massive read with elegant and intricate words perfectly describing the adversity in the story. I felt restive at first due to suspense cause in the middle. After all, it was a good read. I always thought a good book is with a strong adversity and twisted plots. When I read Oracle's journal, it proved to be a kind of book where you get to fantasize the different world and come across the things I love like portal, magic and adventure.
May 16, 2020
Title - The Oracle's Journal
Author - Dimitri Liountris
Pages - 1343
Genre - Mystery Friction
Publisher - Partridge Publishing
Date Published -12th November 2018
Format - Kindle Edition
QOTD -Every Solution To Every Problem Is Simple. It's The Distance Between The Two Where The Mystery Lies - Derek Landy ❤
🔹
Before I go into the story I want to take a minute and appreciate the Author of this book, for writing such a big book/story. This book is in total 1343 pages long and not just that but also many characters which are each explained in a brief, so many twist and turns and last but not the least the Epilogue which are 5 in total explaining each character and what happened later.
I was shocked after seeing all this as I was wondering how long it must have taken the author to create this book. But really I appreciate the author for making an effort and creating this huge book. Now coming to the story, well there are many parts which i really liked but don't know which to talk about so I won't say anything because I want the person reading this review to go and read the book 😂
Due to many characters and plot I was getting confused lot of time so I had to re-read again to understand what was happening. It took me a bit time to complete this book but at the end everything was worth it. I really liked the story and the characters and what was really unique about all the characters were they all were different and opposite to each other. Before I finish this review I would like to say that while reading you will find lots of magic and with that danger and dangerous monsters as well. Recommend to everyone but be ready as it will take time to finish the book but at the end you will like it ☺❤
🔹
Author - Dimitri Liountris
Pages - 1343
Genre - Mystery Friction
Publisher - Partridge Publishing
Date Published -12th November 2018
Format - Kindle Edition
QOTD -Every Solution To Every Problem Is Simple. It's The Distance Between The Two Where The Mystery Lies - Derek Landy ❤
🔹
Before I go into the story I want to take a minute and appreciate the Author of this book, for writing such a big book/story. This book is in total 1343 pages long and not just that but also many characters which are each explained in a brief, so many twist and turns and last but not the least the Epilogue which are 5 in total explaining each character and what happened later.
I was shocked after seeing all this as I was wondering how long it must have taken the author to create this book. But really I appreciate the author for making an effort and creating this huge book. Now coming to the story, well there are many parts which i really liked but don't know which to talk about so I won't say anything because I want the person reading this review to go and read the book 😂
Due to many characters and plot I was getting confused lot of time so I had to re-read again to understand what was happening. It took me a bit time to complete this book but at the end everything was worth it. I really liked the story and the characters and what was really unique about all the characters were they all were different and opposite to each other. Before I finish this review I would like to say that while reading you will find lots of magic and with that danger and dangerous monsters as well. Recommend to everyone but be ready as it will take time to finish the book but at the end you will like it ☺❤
🔹
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews