Book Review: "Green" by Ted Dekker

At Last . . . The Circle Reborn The story of how Thomas Hunter first entered the Black Forest and forever changed our history began at a time when armies were gathered for a final battle in the valley of Migdon. Green is a story of love, betrayal, and sweeping reversals set within the apocalypse. It is the beginning: the truth behind a saga that has captured the imagination of more than a million readers with the Books of History Chronicles.But even more, Green brings full meaning to the Circle Series as a whole, reading as both prequel to Black and sequel to White, completing a full circle. This is Book Zero, the Circle Reborn, both the beginning and the end. The preferred starting point for new readers . . . and the perfect climax for the countless fans who've experienced Black, Red, and White.

I think Ted Dekker is one of the most brilliant authors out there today, Christian or general fiction. I have enjoyed every single one of his books and have been amazed at how he takes a story and creates a whole new world with words. The stories really take you into the story and are able to make the outside world disappear. The Books of Histories Chronicles has been absolutely amazing. This is due the fact that an entire world has been created through several books even when you think the books have absolutely nothing to do with that world. Also if you think that Christian fiction is boring and only aimed at women, you HAVE to read the Circle trilogy. It will blow your mind away.

Green takes you back into the trilogy, pretty much starting right where White ended. Without spoiling the story, familiar characters are revisited, new characters are introduced, battles take place and evil tries to reign over all. That's pretty much the basic plot of the story. We meet up again with Thomas Hunter in the future and then his sister and their friends in the present time. The story shifts back and forth but it isn't confusing especially if you've read the past books. Even though I'm not a big fantasy fan, I really enjoy this series, mainly due to how in depth the characters are portrayed. The battle scenes are written very well as I could feel myself thrown into the action. The twist at the end was quite interesting though at the same time, I feel it was kind of a cop out. I guess how many times does this happen if it's a circle.

The book keeps saying that you can start with this book, even if you've never read the previous Circle books before. I have to disagree with that. I really feel as if you HAVE to read Black, Red and White BEFORE reading Green to really grasp everything. It just feels like Green plops you in the middle/end of the story and there are people, places and even terminology that are never explained in this book but are in the other books. It's kind of like watching Revenge of the Sith before you watch Empire Strikes Back or even Phantom Menace. You COULD start there but you'd be horribly confused. I think even if you've read the books but it's been awhile you could still get confused. Luckily for me, I had just read the books (for the first time) a few weeks ago, so I was still up to date.

Overall I really enjoyed this book and the entire series for that matter. Unanswered questions were finally answered and it was nice to see everything tied together. Other than the blip I mentioned before, this book was outstanding and would definitely recommend the book to both Dekker fans and newbies to Christian fiction.

Green by Ted Dekker is published by Thomas Nelson (2009)

This review copy was provided by the publisher