Jumped Off the Page
5 out of 5 stars
By my count, this is my 26th C.T. Phipps novel – so when I mention anything about this, I think I’m up there in recognizing his work. This was the first book in all 26 that I read that I had to stop in the middle and think “who am I reading again?”. I say that because a lot of Phipps’ books take place in the same place and same universe. Now, I believe that this one does too, don’t get me wrong, but I think this might be an interesting alternate universe or maybe before everything happens that leads to the other books. I also mention that this one feels different because it had a slightly different pacing to it. Now, that being said, different does not in this case mean worse. I enjoyed it just as much and if I was looking for a book in Phipps’ catalog to compare it to it would be some of the Agent G books (especially the ones where they go into his back story).
That’s easily the longest opening to a review I’ve ever written and it was the only part of this review I was sure of. Well that, and the fact that this is definitely a 5-star book. Phipps and Martin wrote a book that jumped off of the page. There were elements in it that really grabbed my attention early, and then as the book continued on, more and more kept getting thrown at the reader and at the main characters.
I liked Robbie as a person and really enjoyed his story arc (including the “jump” that this book is sort of based around). I also really enjoyed the final scenes and the final payoff moment that Phipps and Martin wrote in. (I want to talk about it but… spoilers).
Butterfly (clever with the butterfly effect mentioned numerous times) was a company that you could hate and living in the world that we do today, it’s one of those companies that you can see spawning from any of the big tech companies. They were the right amount of “bad guy” to distract from a lot of the other stuff going on. And allow Robbie to have an origin story unlike many of the other ones that I’ve read before.
I also need to call out that I though Machin did a great job narrating this. He helped Phipps & Martin’s words jump off of the page and really turned Robbie from just a kid to someone real.
Overall, an excellent story that might easily become one of my favorites from Phipps.
Book Description:
Robbie Stone thought he was on the right side of history. He wanted to make a difference by protesting Butterfly, a megacorporation slowly taking over the United States in the near future. But after he’s attacked by a group of assassins, Robbie’s rescuer, a mysterious white-haired girl named Jane, makes a startling claim: the assassins were sent to kill Robbie and prevent his fate of becoming a merciless dictator responsible for the genocide of millions across the globe. Horrified by his destiny, Robbie must now face a choice: give up his vendetta against Butterfly or risk becoming the worst mass murderer the world has ever seen.
Predestiny by CT Phipps, Frank Martin
Narrator: Thomas Machin
Length: 6 hrs and 35 mins
Series: The Predestiny #1
Published by Crossroad Press on April 16th 2021
Genres: Science Fiction
Format: Audiobook
Buy from Audible
Also by this author: Cthulhu Armageddon, Agent G: Infiltrator, The Tower of Zhaal, Lucifer's Star, Dark Destiny
- Cuffing Season by Monica McCallan (Narrated by Lori Prince) - December 8, 2023
- Bit Rot (Bit Rot #1) by Jason Baronette (Narrated by Bill Davis) - December 6, 2023
- Muted (Silence Jones #10 by Erik Carter (Narrated by Gary Bennett) - December 4, 2023
It’s an original universe co-owned with Frank Martin, though certainly influenced by cyberpunk works like Agent G. 🙂
That makes sense. It was just a bit different than your other work that I had to call it out.