The Oracle Year

since I was very young.So, THANK YOU to those brave first readers: Amy Soule (who is not just a reader, but also my wonderful wife, and has beenthere every step of the way on all of this), Shawn DePasquale, Shoumitro Goswami, Sam Soule, Michael Pereira, Carl Marcellino,and Roger Yoo, all of whom read a not‐ready‐for‐prime‐time book just because I asked them to (often more than once). And tothe more recent readers: Ray Fawkes, Ben McCool, and especially Matt Idelson, all of whom helped me with some of the last,crucial tweaks that brought it all together. To Andy Deemer, Shawn Hynes, Scott Snyder, Jake Laufer, Jorge Pertuz, and allthe other friends who support and encourage me in countless ways. To Brad Meltzer, who is nicer than he has any reason tobe, and whose presentation to a Columbia School of Law IP class in my second year set me on the road to writing not just The Oracle Year, but everything else I’ve written, too. To Jeff Boison—a strong argument could be made that this book would not be in yourhands if he hadn’t done a very kind thing some years back. To my incredibly sharp, perceptive agent Seth Fishman at the GernertCompany, whose patient guidance through this process was everything a writer could ask for. And Seth’s colleagues, especiallyWill Roberts. To Angela Cheng Caplan, who rolled the dice with her time and insight perhaps earlier than she had any reasonto—I’ll never forget it. To Sara Nelson, my editor at HarperCollins, who has championed the novel since the first moment sheread it, and all her colleagues, from publishing to PR, who have done a wonderful job designing, copyediting, promoting, andselling this book.

To my family—Amy, Rosemary, Sam, Hannah, and Chris. And to my extended family who are my family. And especially to Mary andJim, whom I miss very much. I think they would have been proud.

To everyone who had a hand in this who I have egregiously failed to include here—and I’m sure you’re out there—you’re thebest, never doubt it.

And thanks to you, for reading.

About the Author

CHARLES SOULE is a New York Times bestselling, Brooklyn-based comic book writer, musician, and attorney. He is best known for writing Daredevil, She-Hulk, Death of Wolverine and various Star Wars comics for Marvel Comics, as well as his creator-owned series Curse Words from Image Comics and theaward-winning political sci-fi epic Letter 44 from Oni Press.

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Also by Charles Soule

Letter 44

Curse Words

Strange Attractors

Death of Wolverine

Daredevil

Copyright

the oracle year. Copyright © 2018 by Charles Soule. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By paymentof the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-bookon-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in orintroduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical,now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

first edition

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.

Digital Edition APRIL 2018 ISBN 978-0-06-268665-7

ISBN 978-0-06-268663-3

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