If you read my little blurb about me, you’ll know how I LOVE to read.
My newest addition to the long list of loved literature is anything by Ted Dekker. So far I have not been disappointed with his writing.
Dekker is kind of a “John Grisham of Christian Fiction”, in my estimation. His stories are not stories about life in middle-class western society, but are full of intrigue, plot twists, and suspense.
I’ve never put my thoughts down for each of his books that I’ve read, and I think I’ll do that, sooner or later.
Ted Dekker Books I have read:
(in no particular order because I don’t know the order they were published in and I don’t remember the order I read them in…)
— The Circle Triology
—- Black
—- Red
—- White
— Blink
— Three (actually Thr3e, but that is tiresome to write)
— Showdown
— Saint
I think that is actually the order I read them in. HA!
Ted Dekker Books on my shelf waiting for me to have some spare time to pick up
(because once I pick one up, it’s hard to put down, and my sweetie says that I don’t get much else done until the book is done):
— The Martyr’s Song Series
—- The Martyr’s Song
—- When Heaven Weeps
—- Heaven’s Wager
—- Thunder of Heaven
— House (co-authored with Frank Peretti)
Ted Dekker Books that didn’t fit into the two above categories:
— Obsessed
— Skin (soon-to-be released)
— Blessed Child (co-authored with Bill Bright)
— A Man Called Blessed (co-authored with Bill Bright)
My favorite by far has been the Circle Trilogy (Black, Red, and White). The allegory is very deep and profound, and the parallels to the Christian life are gorgeous. I’m not sure of what to say without giving things away, except that if you love adventure, with humor and romance, that goes beyond the surface and isn’t always what it seems, you’ll enjoy these 3 books.
Blink was just a blast to read. Fun, fast-paced, dealing with cross-cultural/inter-faith issues – I liked it a lot. Think deja-vu!
Three was…well…very different, almost bizarre. To get into the mind of the main character in the story and imagine Dekker writing this guy – that’ll keep you thinking for days.
And I just found out, moments ago, that Three was made into a MOVIE that was released in late January. That is SO exciting! It must have had limited distribution in Canada because I was clueless as to its existence. It isn’t the first of the books that I would have chosen to make into a movie, but they didn’t ask me, eh?
Showdown and Saint are loosely tied to each other and to the Cirlcle Trilogy. Showdown is the better of the 2 books, but certainly more bizarre. Dekker’s imagination is boundless, it seems, and he takes ordinary people into extraordinary situations with ease and clarity. Picture Paradise, Colorado, a tiny town out in the middle of nowhere, turned upside down and self-destructing from the inside out for reasons no one in town can figure out. It’s like the people are puppets being controlled by some unseen and unknown puppeteer – unseen and unknown to the characters that is. The fun part is that you get to see both sides, or in this case most of the sides, of the story.
If I had to pick a least favorite right now, it would be Saint. Not that it was bad by any stretch of the imagination. More that Dekker has always done some cool things with issues of faith in his books, and I felt he could have done more in Saint. Faith is mentioned and plays a role in the story, but not to any real depth as compared to the other books. Saint isn’t who he thinks he is, but he isn’t who we think he is either. The trickiest part of the book is keeping all the plot twists straight in your mind – what really is the truth? (Not that different than our own stories, I suppose.)
Anyway, I highly recommend any of these books if you like fast-paced, captivating, suspenseful reading. Pick one of his books up and see for yourself how cool and fresh Christian fiction can be.
(I recommend Black for starters…it has a green cover. Not to be confused with Red, which has a black cover… More on that later!)
Stay tuned for updates to my Dekker reviews.
Welcome to Dekker Mania! (Too bad he doesn’t pay me to promote him and his books!)
😎
