Black

Rating:
Summary: The best book I have read in years
Review: I read at least one book per week and have never used the term "mind-blowing" before to describe one. Let me just tell you: Black is mind-blowing.

Ted Dekker has officially established himself as the true replacement in fiction for C.S. Lewis. Not since Lewis and Tolkien has a writer used fiction to invade a person's reality the way that Dekker does. You are left "chewing your cud" for weeks after reading this book.

Black illustrates plainly the unseen battle between good and evil in an intimate way. If you didn't believe before that there is another dimension to this life, Black convinces you beyond the shadow of a doubt.

The character Tanis destroyed the colored forest with a simple decision to taste the fruit and water offered to him by Teeleh. Dekker shows well how the simple decisions that we make daily can and do have far reaching consequences.

If you have never read a book by Ted Dekker, you will want to read them all after reading this one. Get it. You won't be disappointed.

And... it is only the first of a trilogy. The second, Red, will be released in May and White will be released in September.

Dekker fans, like myself, are having a hard time reading other books as we wait rather impatiently for Red. Some of us are left to reread Black numerous times. It gets even better each time I read it.

Good job, Ted. Be blessed.

Rating:
Summary: Ted Dekker is Really Coming Into His Own
Review: The first Ted Dekker book I read was Three, and if you haven't read that one...YOU MUST!!! Since then, I've read Blink and Heaven's Wager, and although Blink was good, neither book captured the thrill I got from reading Three. With that said, Black kept me riveted in as much as Three did.

This is one of the most thrilling and imaginative books I've ever read. Ted Dekker has become my favorite Christian fiction writer, hands down. He tells this story about Thomas Hunter in such a way that you don't know whether his dream is reality or the reality is a dream. You will be cast into two different realities in two different time frames, and you'll be hanging on to see what happens the next time Thomas falls asleep. You have to read this book to find out what I'm talking about.

Will Thomas save the day, will the virus wipe out the world, what is going on with the Black Forest, and will he get the girl? Black has a perfect blend of suspense, thrills, and romance that will keep this book in your hands. When you're finished, you'll be clamoring for the second book in the trilogy....and the best part is...we only have to wait until May 2004.

Rating:
Summary: A New Era for fiction
Review: The first thought on your mind when you read my heading is that I'm overstating the case, as so many reviews tend to do. But this new novel by Ted Dekker honestly does signal a new era in fiction. Never have I read a novel so riviting and so meaningful, which spanned so many ideas and crossed so many genres as Black.

And it worked. Right down to the last page it absolutely worked.

Thomas Hunter is a struggling novelist who is thrown into a dream world that he mistakes for the real world. Unless of course, his dream world IS the real world and the one he assumed was real is really the dream world. Using this device, Black takes the reader on a roller coaster ride in parallel realities in which Hunter is faced with the potential destruction of both worlds due to his own unwitting choices. The twists and turns work into a beautiful symphony of meaning which climaxes with a cliff hanger.

The story is complex and engaging. This is my second Dekker novel, the first being "Three." I don't ordinarily post reviews, but this one demands it. Fantastic book! Very different from Three, but ultimately far more satisfying.

Thank God the next installment, RED, is due out May rather than the typical year wait.

Rating:
Summary: A fantastic, strange, and totally compelling allegory
Review: What an incredible story. Ted Dekker has yet again delivered with a story that simply won't let you go. The book starts out a bit slow, and is often hard to follow as we are taken along with the lead character, Thomas Hunter, between modern day Denver and a strange world that at first appears to be a dream.
Slowly the two worlds become more entwined and harder to determine what is real and what is a dream.

The pacing and structure of the story reminds me of some of Terry Brooks books, namely the "Magic Kingdom: For Sale" series. Consider this trilogy a tribute to the late, great, CS Lewis as it is a wonderful allegory of the Christian story, but with a nod to modern day authors like Brook's or even Stephen King. Like the CS Lewis classic Narnia series, time does not correlate between the two worlds, allowing for the storylines to intersect in some really fascinating ways.

One warning, do not buy this book unless you are prepared to buy all three. So tantalizing is this cliffhanger that I had to run out that day and purchase the second book, and start that one. Now I have to wait for the third.

A well done and well written book. If you are not a fan of science-fiction or thrillers then this book may not appeal to you, but if you are it is an impossible to put down page turner.