Oracles of Delphi Keep: Victoria Laurie’s Orphans, a Silver Box and a 3,000-Year-Old Prophecy
Three thousand years ago, a Greek oracle foretold that a time of terrible darkness would come, a time when the forces of good and evil would meet in a battle whose outcome no one could predict. Only with the help of two young orphans with extraordinary gifts could good prevail. That is the premise of Oracles of Delphi Keep (2009), the first book of Victoria Laurie’s trilogy.
Author: Victoria Laurie
Title: Oracles of Delphi Keep (2009), book 1 of 3
Format: English Kindle edition (Delacorte Press), 562 pages in print
Scope: Middle-grade fantasy adventure for ages 10 to 12
Amazon: www.amazon.es/dp/B001NLL4CI (ASIN B001NLL4CI)
Orphans at the White Cliffs
It is the 1930s in England. Ian and Theo are two children who live in the orphanage at Delphi Keep, an old castle keep on the White Cliffs of Dover. One fateful morning they decide to explore a cave, and to their amazement they find its walls covered with incomprehensible symbols and a small silver box resting on the floor.
A Prophecy and a Beast
With no time to think, they have to run for their lives, because a beast with the head of a wolf and the body of a lion is chasing them. Inside the box is a prophecy that names Ian and Theodosia, and a quest on which the fate of the world depends. Suddenly Delphi Keep is no longer safe, and the two children and a small group of friends must work out what the scroll means before darkness falls.
The Real Oracle
The book’s premise draws on a real place. For centuries the Oracle of Delphi, in the temple of Apollo on the slopes of Mount Parnassus, was the most famous shrine in the ancient Greek world. Its priestess, the Pythia, delivered prophecies in the god’s name to kings, cities and ordinary visitors, and her answers were famously ambiguous. Laurie imagines that some of those prophecies were hidden and carried far from Greece, and that the orphans of Delphi Keep are bound up with them.
Theo and Ian
The two heroes complement each other well. Theodosia, found as a baby at the foot of the cliffs and taken in by the orphanage, has unexplained gifts of her own and a habit of acting before thinking. Ian, a little older, is careful and protective, especially of his younger brother. Their friendship, and the way the adults around them divide into protectors and pursuers, keeps the story grounded even as the monsters multiply.
From Adult Mysteries to Children’s Fantasy
Victoria Laurie was already known for two series of adult paranormal mysteries, the Psychic Eye Mysteries and the Ghost Hunter Mysteries, and she has spoken about working as a professional psychic. Oracles of Delphi Keep was her first book for young readers, and she brings to it the same brisk plotting and taste for the supernatural, set against the atmosphere of 1930s England on the eve of war.
Who Will Enjoy It
Readers of about ten to thirteen who love Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson books or quest stories built around riddles and ancient myths. It is long, which suits children who like to disappear into a book for a week, and the Kindle edition makes its length less daunting.
A Long Adventure
The novel runs to more than five hundred pages in print, with cliffhangers at the end of many chapters, so it suits confident readers or a shared read-aloud over several weeks.
Why Read It
It has the old-fashioned charm of British adventure stories and the pace of a modern fantasy series, with ancient Greece, hellhounds and treasure hunts. The story continues in The Curse of Deadman’s Forest and Quest for the Secret Keeper.
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