Prophet of Bones: A Novel

Written by Ted Kosmatka

Narrated by Scott Sowers

Ted Kosmatka's sensational new thriller, Prophet of Bones, thrusts listeners into an alternate present.

Paul Carlson, a brilliant young scientist, is summoned from his laboratory job to the remote Indonesian island of Flores to collect DNA samples from the ancient bones of a strange, new species of tool user unearthed by an archaeological dig. The questions the find raises seem to cast doubt on the very foundations of modern science, which has proven the world to be only 5,800 years old, but before Paul can fully grapple with the implications of his find, the dig is violently shut down by paramilitaries.

Paul flees with two of his friends, yet within days one has vanished and the other is murdered in an attack that costs Paul an eye, and very nearly his life. Back in America, Paul tries to resume the comfortable life he left behind, but he can't cast the questions raised by the dig from his mind. Paul begins to piece together a puzzle which seems to threaten the very fabric of society, but world's governments and Martial Johnston, the eccentric billionaire who financed Paul's dig, will stop at nothing to silence him.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Audio
• Release date: Apr 2, 2013
• ISBN: 9781427228871

Ted Kosmatka

Ted Kosmatka was born and raised in Chesterton, Indiana, and spent more than a decade working in various laboratories where he sometimes used electron microscopes. He is the author of Prophet of Bones and The Games, a finalist for the Locus Award for Best First Novel and one of Publishers Weekly's Best Books of 2012. His short fiction has been nominated for both the Nebula and Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Awards and has appeared in numerous Year's Best anthologies. He now lives in the Pacific Northwest.

Reviews for Prophet of Bones

[kmartin802_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

PROPHET OF BONES was a curious book. It is science fiction and alternate history both. In this story, when the evolutionists and the Creationists debated, the Creationists won the argument. Science is very much under the control of the churches which don't want anyone to find any evidence that life began earlier than 5800 years ago. They are aided in covering up any contrary information by billionaire Martial Johansson who is busy playing God and creating his own genetic crosses.Paul Carlsson is a scientist who is an expert on bones. He is recruited to look at some at an isolated dig in Indonesia. What he sees doesn't fit in with anything he knows about. Someone else has found out about the discovery too and is eager to kill anyone who might spread the word. Paul's friend is killed and Paul loses an eye but manages to make his way back to the United States. Unknown to the attackers, Paul has brought some samples of the bones with him. The story keeps building in intensity as everyone Paul brings in to the search for what the bones are is killed shortly after giving Paul additional information. Everyone is in danger and Paul has no one that he can trust. This is science fiction with a strong emphasis on the science. I don't know enough about genetics to know if the quotations that begin many of the chapters are real or made up. I will say that they are certainly written as though they were from academic papers. I also wasn't at all able to follow the very convoluted information about the genetic samples. This made it hard reading. The only way that I knew Martial was the villain was because his henchmen left a trail of bodies behind them. The only way I knew that Paul was the hero was that he only left the bodies of those who attacked him behind. I think the book lost some intensity for me because I couldn't connect with Paul. As a character, he was opaque to me. I had no idea what kind of a person he was or what his goal was. Lacking an understandable plot, strong characters I could relate to would keep me reading. This missed on that aspect too. My ARC has positive blurbs by Clive Cussler, Nelson DeMille, and Steve Berry. Either they are more well versed in genetics or they read a different book than I did. I don't know who the audience for this one would be but I know I wasn't the right one.

[paul_s-289480 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

The action is cliched and tedious but the idea is really neat. I liked the "evolutionism" joke, as ham handed as it is. Interesting idea to think about.

[jakecasella · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Fun triller, very much in the tradition of Crichton. I found the short it's based on, "Prophet of Flores", vastly more satisfying. The novel fails to engage with the larger possibilities of its alternate-history setting, and introduces a new plot--hybrids between humans and apes/extinct hominids-- that falls into a surprisingly and disappointedly old-fashioned others-are-monsters, apes-are-coming-for-our-women bag of tropes.

[jbd1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A good scientific thriller, set in an alternate world where evolution is disproved and the earth is believed to be just a few thousand years old. When a chance discovery on the island of Flores threatens to upend that worldview, powerful forces will do whatever needs doing to keep the new knowledge secret. And back at the home base of those powerful forces, deep in the Florida Everglades lies a mysterious compound populated by ... well, you'll just have to read the book to find out.Read in one sitting - it was difficult to put down once I started.

[celticlady53 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Prophet of Bones is a novel that delves into evolution-ism and creationism...an archaeological dig unearths bones never before seen, then the dig is shut down and from that point on Paul Carlson's life changes forever and leads him to the man that has the answers. Martial Johnson, in my opinion, is trying to be God in that he has been conducting experiments with cross breeding of animals such as horses and donkeys, lions and tigers then moving onto chimps and humans. What results from these experiments is rather frightening. One critic said that this story is very reminiscent of Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park, where a man is messing around with dinosaur DNA with disastrous results.I did find the book a bit hard to get into what with all the scientific jargon, but I stuck with it and found that I really got into it after a few chapters. I enjoyed the writing and came away from the novel hoping that scientists are not conducting these kind of DNA manipulations at all. Kind of scary stuff for sure. If you enjoy a scientific murder mystery/thriller then I can say that this book is for you, or if you, like me, find this kind of story intriguing, go out and get yourself a copy of this book.I received a copy of this book for review and was not monetarily compensated for my review.

[disco_grinch · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Prophet of Bones by Ted KosmatkaI received a free copy of this book through the "early reviewers" program in exchange for an HONEST review.PLEASE keep in mind, this review is written by my “taste in books”/my opinion. Check out my library ratings of other books to see if your tastes are the same as mine before judging this book by my review.Despite being rather slow at times, the overall story did keep my interest. The plot was a variation of the "I'm doing something evil/bad and trying to hide it while you're trying to figure it out and expose me". So it doesn't get many points for originality in this area.Another complaint I had was the constant use of complex scientific equations, etc. I like when a sci-fi/fantasy books goes into to detail...it creates believable and interesting stories...but this one just went overboard in MANY places describing formulas and processing that added very little if nothing to the overall story/plot (except slow it down).The beginning chapters were extremely slow and I was tempted to quit reading many times until I hit somewhere around chapter 5. After that the pace picked up and things began to become interesting.**SPOILER ALERT**The general story is about a guy named Paul whose mother and father were scientists. Paul starts to do his own experiments on rats at a young age until his father finds out and destroys the cages telling him not to "play god". This somewhat long and SLOW trip through Paul's young life is followed by and slightly shorter trip through his college years, etc until he is a grown adult.Paul gets mixed (unknowingly) with the same company that his father used to work for and gets caught up in trying to discover what "secrets" the company is hiding and expose them to the world. Many things come full circle (so to speak) with Paul finding out that his father was a head scientist at the company when he was younger in addition to his father's work also being similar to "playing god".I'm skipping around somewhat here just to give you an idea and not ruin the whole story...Overall, I enjoyed the read but I won't read it again. I am not sure I would recommend it to anyone unless they LOVED scientific research or something along those lines. It really reminded me of Jurassic Park but with primates (think the missing link) and slightly more deviant and perverse (as far as genetics goes).I rated this book 3.5 stars.

[tottman_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Prophet of Bones is an exciting thriller set in an alternate world where Darwin was discredited and the belief that the earth is only a few thousand years old persists into the 21st century. This is a fascinating premise and Ted Kosmatka really delivers with his sophomore effort.In a world where the best science believes the earth to only be a few thousand years old, a discovery that threatens that belief triggers a violent reaction that costs Paul Carlsson an eye and several other people their lives. Paul manages to smuggle out a genetic sample and some very powerful people want to make sure his discovery never sees the light of day.Kosmatka does a great job of creating atmosphere. While the pages move by swiftly, there is a pervading sense of tension and dread that oozes from the book. Dangerous experiments that mess with the genetic code are truly terrifying in the wrong hands. By setting the book in a world where Darwin was wrong, Kosmatka effectively highlights not only the threat that new discovery poses to the status quo, but to religion, politics and belief systems. Prophet of Bones is not a typical thriller. The hero is not a bull-in-the-china-shop type. He is physically imposing, but he is foremost a scientist and a man of conviction. Paul Carlsson is a very interesting character. He is layered and driven. I very much enjoyed Kosmatka’s first book, The Games, but Prophet of Bones is even better. The characters are more rounded and compelling, the monsters are just as terrifying, and the plotting is solid from beginning to end. This is a story that will entertain as well as make you think. Highly recommended.I was fortunate to receive an advance copy of this book.

[beserene · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I'm not sure exactly what to say about this science fiction/science thriller novel. Science thrillers aren't something I read terribly often and, while I read science fiction a fair bit, this book definitely leans toward the thriller side of things. In other words, take what I have to say with a grain of sodium-substitute, because I don't have the luxury of experienced comparison. The novel's protagonist, Paul, is a young scientist who grew up fascinated by genetic evolution... but he lives in a world where science is dominated by religion and the Earth has been unquestionably determined as 5800 years old. The alternate reality here is pretty thinly metaphorical; Kosmatka's historical and scientific references are largely our own, though it is fun to catch the deviations that give flavor to his version of the world. There is a great deal to catch here, in fact, since the book is fairly thick with technical descriptions and genetic jargon; despite the occasional challenge to my attention, I found the story difficult to put down. The pace, which picks up after the first section, accelerates through archaeological revelations and controversial conflicts without easing up. Paul, and the reader along with him, is caught up in a whirlwind of violence and death after he consults on the discovery of bones that could potentially shake the foundations of scientific and religious belief in his world. As he struggles to stay alive, others battle to keep the discovery a secret. No spoilers here about what the bones really mean, but you may wish to know in advance that the resulting conflict centered around Paul is brutal; the book is replete with descriptions of blood and mayhem. There are even a few of the thriller world's most "beloved" cliches, including a brush with sexual assault for the only female character who comes anywhere close to heroism... so obviously this is not a book that rises above typical characterizations. The clumsy attempts at character-building are really too bad, though, because the book is pretty entertaining and compelling reading, especially in the ways that it takes a good, hard look at the nature of both humanity and society. Overall, I can't recommend this for everyone, but I can say that it is worth reading for those who really enjoy the thriller genre and are prepared for both the flaws and the charms it can carry.

[randystafford · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Yes, this novel really is set in a world 5,880 years old, a world much like ours – same countries, same religions. It even has Google.And that’s one of the problems.As a thriller, where the bones of Flores serve as a MacGuffin, this book works. Its dialogue is sharp. The descriptions of the sciences of genetics and physical anthropology are real and well done. It avoids one of the most annoying thriller clichés: the man and woman, strangers to one another, falling in love while running for their lives. And it shares a feature with many thrillers: we do not see how the Flores discovery affects the greater world because it is, in the end, just a MacGuffin.And that points to where this book fails if you’re coming to it as a science fiction reader – which is to be expected since Kosmatka is primarily known as a science fiction writer and his 2007 story, “The Prophet of Flores”, forms the core of the first two parts of the novel.In terms of the interior logic of the book, its working out of its premise that the young earth of creationists, with all species being the product of divine creation by an “architect”, as the science journals put it, is not very satisfying. I think, in the subtleties of how Kosmatka works with the themes of the creator’s relation to the created (and the created amongst themselves), the role of catastrophe and chance in life, Kosmatka does attempt to show, as he states in the publicity material that came with my review copy, that the world of the creationist is more disturbing than ours. I say attempt because I don’t think he does, in the end, work that notion out satisfactorily.Those looking for an interesting thriller will probably be satisfied. But the rest of this review will be for regular readers of science fiction with SPOILERS AHEAD.First, there is the nature of this novel’s world. Socially and intellectually it doesn’t seem to deviate from ours until 1932 when potassium-argon dating begins to sound the death knell for evolution. The 1954 introduction of carbon dating finally kills evolution as an idea – except in the swamps of pseudoscience. All of the earth sciences and biology must contend with an earth less than 6,000 years old. Now, apart from heresy trials for some geneticists, the banning of certain books, and a vaguely described coalition of churches supporting some politicians, the world seems little different. The effects of removing evolutionary design ideas from various disciplines is totally ignored – after all, as I mentioned, even Google still exists. In the last three decades, political activities by churches (at least in America) are associated with a reaction against secularism and, often, the idea of evolution seen as its chief enabler. I think it unlikely that involvement would be maintained in the world of this novel. Second, there is the secret of the Flores bones: they show a common ancestor of the Flores’ “hobbits” and man existing more than 6,000 years ago. So, obviously, either the dating methods and science of this world are wrong or … Well, this book opts for the “or” in a villain whose activities are so egregious, whose motivations ultimately stem from the old biblical puzzle of where Cain got his wife, that, I guess, we are to see a world still firmly based on religion as still having the evils of ours or worse. It seems that man, even here, will be seen as just another animal, at least by the villain. In the background are subtle hints of other possible explanations: multiple, competing creators or some sort of gnostic god of destruction or a god running some sort of design experiment lately. (After all, the hero, in his boyhood, is accused of playing god in his mouse breeding. But, no matter which of the four you go with, none emotionally or intellectually convinced me this was a far more disturbing world than ours.In the end, considered as a whole, I put this novel down as a failure – but an interesting one.

[pghdragonman · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I have never heard of Ted Kosmatka before reading Prophet of Bones. I now want to find his short stories and I hope to read more full-length works from him. Not as geeky as Neal Stephenson or Kim Stanley Robinson can be but definitely more scientific in tone than most pseudoscientific thrillers, the author spins quite a tale of DNA and human ancestry set in a slightly alternate version of here and now.In the world of Prophet of Bones, science does exist, but science has proved creationists, not evolutionists, correct. It is an accepted scientific fact the world is 5,800 years old. Enter Paul Carlsson, a scientist with a confused and troubled childhood. Paul is sent to a dig near Indonesia to extract DNA samples from some bones found there. These bones, it turns out, may turn the world order, in Paul’s world, upside down.What comes next is a fast paced, but told in a decidedly polished style, story of scientific suppression, the inter-relationships of power, government corruption and corporate greed that borderlines on a secret agent chase as Paul is pursued by forces for what he knows and has in his possession. Just to keep things interesting, his past is also catching up with him. More plausible than Crichton’s Next, Prophet of Bones also posits what would happen if certain taboos on breeding and gene altering were lifted.My biggest dissatisfaction was the end of the story. It just ends. Without introducing spoilers, it is not enough of a cliffhanger ending. We are given certain clues that Paul beats the bad guys at their game. There is also a pall hanging over the final scene that maybe he did not really win. The problem is, the tension at the end is not high enough that you really care one way or the other. It just ends. I think the author was trying for an ending like the movie Inception where you are wondering if it is reality or a dream, but Ted Kosmatka just does not pull it off as well.I have no problem calling this a four star book. If the ending were tweaked a little bit, it would easily be four and a half stars. Well worth acquiring and reading if you are a fan of science heavy sci-fi or alternate reality stories.

[snowstorm14 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A thriller with not much excitement based on ideas that have been written about numerous times before. A scientific discovery is made that could have worldwide ramifications, or so we are led to believe. Connections in this book are tenuous at best and hard to fathom at worst. Why should a congressman get involved in the results of a scientific inquiry? Why would someone build a top secret facility with virtually no security?The basic premise of the book is good but the execution leaves something to be desired. In the final scene when tension should be building, the bad guy launches into a lengthy monologue on genetics. Too much time is spent on scientific details while the plot goes through the traditional routine of characters trying to escape from kidnappers. The flow of the story is uneven and a sense of menace never develops until very late in the novel.The author certainly knows his science but the presentation could have been better. For those who feel they really can’t get enough thrillers to read.

[mtrumbo_2 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Prophet of Bones (Early Reviewers copy) is set in a world where science has proved the Earth to only be 5,800 years old and a young scientist stumbles across a discovery that is quite to the contrary. This novel was billed as a scientific thriller though to be honest I didn’t feel the thriller part as much. I enjoyed Kosmatka’s previous novel, The Games, and felt that this novel lacked the action and edge that his previous book had. Perhaps that was his intention? For me it just didn’t come together.

[everfresh1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Interesting and original setup bu somewhat lacking execution. If you take away the setup it was left with nothing but a second rate pseudo sci fi thriller that we have read quite many times, and which is not very exciting. Overall, very uneven.

[fledgist · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a fascinating novel set in a world where science has demonstrated that the world is only 5,800 years old and, consequently, evolutionary theory is wrong (and believed in only by some pseudo-scientific cranks). Paul Carlsson the half-Asian, half-white son of a famous, and erratic, scientist is participating in an archaelogical dig on Flores in Indonesia which is digging up the bones of H. floresiensis, when everything goes pear-shaped. It becomes clear that the "hobbits" are another human species, a separate creation, and this is threatening to a world-view that has accepted the fixity of species and the young earth (since science has proved it). It turns out that a millionaire in Florida is engaged in some interesting scientific activities, that involve Paul, and appear to have involved his father. The story manages to hold together, and raises some interesting questions about nature, while teetering at the edge of consistency in places.

[irapearson · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

(LibraryThing Early Reviewer)This is a page-turner, no doubt. I must give credit where credit is due. Ted Kosmatka's "Prophet of Bones" kept me interested right up to the end. The central conceit of the story: a parallel universe in which both the popular and scientific consensus is that the Earth was created by God five millennia ago because carbon dating supposedly proved it to be true. This was, I thought, handled consistently throughout the novel. But I found myself troubled by the level of intellectual dishonesty that would be required of the entire scientific community to make it plausible. And I was not entirely satisfied with the novel's third act which seemed very reminiscent of H. G. Wells's The Island of Doctor Moreau. Possibly unintentional or a deliberate homage, but either way a disappointment. Despite the perceived flaws, it was, overall, a fun read, and I would still recommend it.