The Quantum Prophecy

infobox Book |
name = The Quantum Prophecy (US retitled "The Awakening")
author = Michael Carroll
country = United Kingdom
language = English
series = The New Heroes (US: Quantum Prophecy)
genre = Science Fiction
publisher = HarperCollins, Philomel Books, Puffin Books
release_date = January 3, 2006
media_type = Print (Paperback & Hardback)
pages = 320 pp
isbn = ISBN 978-0007210923
preceded_by =
followed_by = Sakkara
last_book = Superhuman

The Quantum Prophecy (ISBN 978-0007210923, January 2006) by Michael Carroll (author) is the title of the first novel in The New Heroes series of books for young adults, published by HarperCollins in the United Kingdom. The Awakening (ISBN 0399247254, April 2007) is the title in the United States, as published by Philomel Books and, in 2008, Puffin Books (ISBN 978-0142411797, May 2008).

Plot

The story opens with a seemingly random battle among the many superhumans that inhabited the western world, set ten years ago at the foot of a gigantic tank that was on its way to New York City. During the course of this slugfest, the superheroes and supervillains all seem to lose their abilities.

Ten years later, Colin Wagner and Danny Cooper, the children of these superhumans are discovering their abilities and they soon learn that they have also inherited their parents' enemies. The teenagers are kidnapped in order to calibrate the machine that might take away their powers and stop a war that was prophecised by Danny's father, the man once known as Quantum. Danny was believed to be the cause of this war, and so he allowed the supervillain known as Façade to take his place to let Maxwell Dalton record his visions of the future as he broke down. They had hoped to avert it by stripping the world of superpowers ten years ago, but the machine was destroyed and Danny's powers continued to manifest. The new machine would be unstable, and potentially kill hundreds of thousands of people, but it was a risk they were willing to take. With the help of old heroes, including the frozen in time Renata Soliz (Diamond), they stop this from happening and have those behind the plot taken away. By the end of the book, they realise how much risk is involved in becoming superhuman, with Danny's arm now missing, his real father dead, and many lives irrevocably changed.

Acclaim

The Quantum Prophecy was nominated for the 2006 Ottakar's Children's Book Prize. The book received positive reviews from nearly all critics, but some criticised the kitsch marketing of the series.