The Fortuneteller’s Fate is a Cli-Fi (climate fiction) book about a prophetic teen and his friend trying to survive in a world ravaged by disasters, social breakdown and eco-cults.
Emile, a powerful psychic, is terrified by his visions for the future. His visions have so far proven 100 per cent accurate, and people give enormous power to his words, especially among cultists.
He meets Bezel, a gorgeous, combative refugee girl who rejects the idea of fate and believes she can create her own future. Their paths intertwine with that of Nazareth (Naz), a tycoon building a massive shelter to rescue humans from disaster. Naz’s dream is contradicted heavily by Emile’s vision, and it’s not long before the tycoon wants the fortuneteller dead.
Emile and Bezel challenge each other to think differently about their future. The theme of the story is about fate, disasters, economic inequality and how much the future depends on choice versus destiny.
The World in 2058
- After two great “Resource Wars” over energy and food supplies, nation-states have mostly disappeared; some have collapsed altogether others have become puppet states ruled by corporations.
- Like communism vs. capitalism in the 20th century, the 21st century is becoming a battle between “Survivalists” and “Fatalists” — people who are working toward the survival of humanity into the 22nd century, and those who have decided to accept their end and are indulging, spending the resources they have today because they believe the end is near.CULTURE
- There’s an overarching sense of gloom and chaos, an intuition/gut-feeling many people have around the coming Apocalypse — the pressure that there aren’t enough resources in the world to continue surviving in peace, and that humankind will never again reach the heights they had before.
- Nostalgia and New Age – People of wealth, trendsetters, cultural icons are drawn to the fashion and music of the past — the 80s, the 50s, even as far back as the Ming Dynasty and Victorian era, back when the world felt hopeful. Because science and technology has failed humanity, fortune-telling, the occult, alternative religion and superstition have become a major influence. Newspapers now feature horoscopes and Blood Type fortunes on the front page. Businesses overtly seek advice from psychics, most of whom are scammers who either use research or psychology to make predictions.
- Art and culture are valued like never before by the wealthy, but the poor drive its production. People are drawn to experiences that take them out of the everyday hopelessness to escape to a fantasy world.
CHARACTER MOTIVATIONS - The Fortuneteller – Emile (17-18), the world’s most accurate psychic, wants to stop being an “empty vessel”. Emile is traumatized by a future that hasn’t happened yet—by 2062, he sees himself as a legendary prophet for the Cult of Colliding Stars, giving a prediction that humanity will be wiped out by an asteroid. He is revered by Cultists as a “prophet” and “guide star” whose every prediction is accurate. Emile has refined tastes, avoids conflict, is morally ambiguous and has a co-dependent personality, which makes him only feel at ease when being useful to other people…which makes him prone to exploitation. He is physically frail, in part because his employer deliberately weakened him to prevent him from escaping.
- The Scavenger – Bezel Suaifan (17) wants justice and fairness. Her desire to save her family is mostly for herself, so that she can believe that goodness and karma have meaning in the world. Bezel is a strong, beautiful, healthy refugee girl from a formerly wealthy entrepreneurial family who bears the responsibility of bringing her clan to Canada while steering clear from the law. She inspires Emile to imagine a future that runs counter to the grim predictions he keeps seeing in his mind. Although warm-hearted with a strong streak of justice, she struggles with explosive, violent rage stemming from past sexual assault. Her name, is an anagram of her real name, Elena F. Zubis.
- The “Messiah” – Nazareth Orrick-Chiang (54) wants to save the world and ‘prove’ himself to his absentee father, who never acknowledged him. Nazareth Orrick for leaving the family. He has a strong Messiah complex and believes he was born to protect humanity from extinction-level events. Ironically, he neglects his own children. For him, humanity is not declining, but is entering its golden age of innovation. His plan is to create an Anthroporium that will serve as a new man-made environment, made for human beings and free from the hazards and limitations of nature. His nemesis is the fatalist movement, and he wishes to find and kill Emile so that the Cultists lose their prophet figure.
- The Artist – Leo (22) wants to feel connected to God. Leo is a vagabond, a creative genius and petty criminal whose path is changed by a random psychic reading by Emile. He later is recruited by Nazareth to create the artistic ‘vision’ for the Anthroporium. He believes in God and feels divinely inspired. This inspiration is lost when he discovers Emile told him a false fortune, in order to spare his feelings when Emile saw he had a bleak, hopeless future.
Fortuneteller's Fate 