The Cicada Prophecy

By: J. R. McLeay

Narrated by: Todd McLaren

Since the dawn of civilization, it's been mankind's greatest dream: immortality and eternal youth. Dramatic advances in medical science have finally made it possible. But in order to preserve everyone's youthful state, they must undergo an irreversible operation before passing into adulthood. A special hormone patch maintains each person's body in the form of a preadolescent 11-year-old.

Under the authority of the United Nations, surgeon-general Dr. Richard Ross oversees the universal program that promises a peaceful utopian society. Emotionally and intellectually mature juveniles now rule the world. But not everyone is happy with the new arrangement. A group of rebels from the Garden of Eden church plots to overthrow the new regime and return the world to its natural order.

The idyllic setting is quickly overturned. A series of sinister schemes and escalating medical complications sets the world on a course of imminent extinction. Building to an action-packed climax, Dr. Ross and his endocrinologist girlfriend must find and save the one person who carries the genetic link for preserving the human race.

©2014 J. R. McLeay (P)2016 Tantor

One thing kept bothering me while Iistened to this

What disappointed you about The Cicada Prophecy?

If this is a story about people with 11 year old bodies then why are all the voices adults?I didn't finish this one (at least not yet); it just seemed to drag on and was taking too long to get exciting in any way.

What do you think your next listen will be?

Not sure

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

I can't blame the narrator himself; he has good vocal variety and probably did the best he could with this book.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Cicada Prophecy?

It was just slow

Any additional comments?

When I finally can stomach listening to the rest of this I may revise my review (if it gets better).

Pre-Pubescent Sex Scenes = Not Okay

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

If you like medical dramas you might like this.

Has The Cicada Prophecy turned you off from other books in this genre?

I tend to like medial drama/thrillers. This was terrible.

How could the performance have been better?

It was hard to remember every character in the book is a child. The performer tried to do accents for the characters to keep them identifiable and that was not done well.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Cicada Prophecy?

The sex scene between two pre-pubescent characters. I understand they were "adults" but it was not needed in the story. It added nothing.

Any additional comments?

Don't waste your time with this trash.

Boring and controdictive

The "science" of the book contradicts itself. The characters are unrealistic and just plain boring. Definitely NOT worth buying.

leaves,a lot to be desired

wow kept thinking is this a young kid who wrote this,no couldn't be they would have had much more imagination. seriously if your going to right about the future let's have the future from what I can gather this was supposed to be 100 years down the road yet everything other than the fact that people are kept younger the rest of the world hasn't changed one bit so weak very disappointing and I only listen to the end because it was on audio book and I had nothing better to listen to but I kept telling myself just turn it off it's too frustrating please when writing about the future at least have some interesting Concepts to think about I hated the story

Forever young… that was the plan, anyway

Humans have long tried to find the fountain of youth. In the future, it appears that doctors and scientists alike have found the proverbial fountain of youth and it literally involves keeping people young… very young. 11 years old (on the outside at least). There is a new surgery that is mandatory, allowing the world to live a young and full life much longer than their parents and grandparents were able to.

At first, I thought it would be heard to imagine a bunch of adult 11-year-olds running around and at times it was. I just don’t see a doctor or a member of the UN to be 11 years old. Other than having a slightly difficult time imagining the characters looking a certain way I thought that the premise was fascinating.

The science in the book was really interesting and I believe that it was based on some true findings. You can tell that the author has either worked in medicine before or did a lot of research before writing this.

A few times I felt like the book got bogged down in a Steven King-esque detail tirades (I’m thinking the scene in the graveyard), but they were few and far between.

Overall, The Cicada Prophecy was a fascinating look into the near future and what could happen if we begin to mess with science. It also featured a pretty interesting conflict between science and religion that has existed for decades.