RiseUp! discussion

Anyone read Dekker books?

I have read a lot of his books.

What genre is he?

Christian fantasy, and thriller.

Sounds fun. If I'm going to begin to read them, which one is a favorite that I should start with?

Nine people out of ten will tell you Black. My favorite of his is Blink Of An Eye.
If you do start with Black, and you like it, then read Chosen after.

I agree with Mojo most people will recommend because Black because it is just plain awesome. (Mojo is the one in ten that didn't like it) I have yet to read Blink of an Eye (Formerly Blink) but I have heard only good things about it.

Too bad I'm so behind of the Dekker books, it would be fun to do one for the discussions board. Unless of course he has one coming out soon so everyone can read it as a first-read together.

The last book in his most recent trilogy just came out but that wouldn't work cause everybody would have to start from the beginning.

I thought there were going to more to the Books Of Mortals. Not just a trilogy... Hmmm...

Dekker has plenty of standalone books, though I'm not sure they'd be age appropriate for our group (Dekker books can be quite violent).

Yes they can be. and some are very gruesome. I keep forgetting that people younger than me don't read at my level. (I started reading normal books in my early teens.)

Chosen is an excellent book, and it's YA, so there wouldn't be much problem there, though it's not exactly the best starting point for the Circle-verse... Is it?

Not at all. That one was not very good compared to rest of the Circle-verse.

I think Chosen, and its following books are the best of the Circle-verse. Because they have the best characters, and they don't rely purely on allegory to keep you interested in the story.
They're fun, exciting and everything that good books should be.

The Paradise series had maybe three good characters in the whole trilogy, and two of them were so severely underused it was criminal. Oh, but Showdown had allegory in it (let's forget it was pretty much the same allegory we saw in Black and Red, and now seen in Forbidden and Mortal)

Black, Red, White is basically just all about Thomas, so if you don't like him, then there isn't much there for you, except the allegory of it, which is cool at first, but quickly wears off once you realize you've seen it before.

I see where you are coming from. I feel that Chosen and it's subsequent sequels were good books in there own right.

I consider the paradise books to be quite original but full of grand ideas that have been underdeveloped.

The books of Mortals in my opinion was an idea that sounded good on paper but required a lot of mental hoop jumping to fully enjoy or just plain understand at points even thought the writing itself was impeccably masterful.

And finally I feel that the circle while being centered on Thomas and where he went was more about the story around him and less about the character. so while Thomas our protagonist he himself was quite lackluster.

These are simply my feelings and opinions. I am not attacking you bro. and i think you made a lot of very clear concise points that gave me pause and did change some of my opinions about all things Dekker.

I think that's exactly what I mean; they good in their own right. They didn't need to be tied to anything else to enjoy them.

I don't know about the Paradise series being original. Here's the synopsis for Peretti's The Visitation:

"The sleepy, eastern Washington wheat town of Antioch has become a gateway for the supernatural--from sightings of angels and a weeping crucifix to a self-proclaimed prophet with an astounding message.

The national media and the curious all flock to the little town--a great boon for local business but not for Travis Jordan. The burned-out former pastor has been trying to hide his past in Antioch. Now the whole world is headed to his backyard to find the Messiah, and in the process, every spiritual assumption he has ever held will be challenged. The startling secret behind this visitation ultimately pushes one man into a supernatural confrontation that has eternal consequences"

Sounds an awful lot like Showdown minus the "cut-off" from the world part.

I read Forbidden, but couldn't get into Mortal, so I can't judge those.

Yeah, I just never could bring myself to care for him. Not sure why.

I respect your opinions. And am not at all offended (you can't possibly offend me btw ;) ..) I'm sorry if my previous post sounded kinda hostile.

I've read more books by Dekker than any other author I've read. I also have more complaints about Dekker than any other author I've read, lol.
I have a very love/hate relationship with his writing.

I think you are correct about Showdown but I was referring to the series as a whole not simply the first.

I agree I have liked some of his books and found others unimaginative. but i seem to find thing I like in most books. You didn't sound hostile I just wanted to be sure that if I sounded hostile you knew I wasn't trying to be.

I am painfully far behind on Dekker books. The Circle series was my first of his books, and it remains my favourite.

His writing never fails to inspire me to write more...

Least favourite of his: Heaven's Wager.

Gwen wrote: "His writing never fails to inspire me to write more..."

That's funny. His writing never fails to stop my writing (cause I have to finish the book, or series before I can do anything else, lol)

Well... that goes without saying –– I have to actually finish the book before I can continue writing...

Haha, yeah...

Heavens wager was the bane of my existence for about two months. I love the Martyrs song.

lol, the bane of your existence.

Yes.

Demonhunter777 wrote: "Heavens wager was the bane of my existence for about two months. I love the Martyrs song."

Right? That is the perfect description! It took me sooooo long to read Heaven's Wager. Martyrs Song, though... that was good!

Huh... I've never heard anything but stellar reviews for HW

Interesting. what about Immanuel's veins

I love I.V! Easily one of my top Dekker books. Not. For. The. Faint. Of. Heart.

This I agree with wholeheartedly.

I just finished my first Ted Dekker book......AWESOME. I listened to Burn while I was exercising. Now I don't feel so bad about not know who he was and I'll be reading more in future. :)

Even my mom knew who he was and had read lots of his books. LOL

So I am on the verge of finishing Sovereign and it feels like a repeat of the last two books in the series. and all of the series feels like elements of the world that he created in other books regurgitated at me again. the only scene that I really liked was Because it was something fresh but aside from that the book tanked and looking back the rest of the series was the same.
(view spoiler)[When Feyn started cutting down her own generals. (hide spoiler)]

@Lora: awesome! lol... I haven't read Burn yet.

@DH: I totally agree about the series being too similar to the other world he created.

Well, let us know what you think of the ending. As I've learned from Dekker books, you can't judge them until you've turned the very last page. Often times I've been dissatisfied by his books, only to be floored once I've read the last page.

That being said, I never even read book two (Mortal). I was enjoying Forbidden until (view spoiler)[they killed Avra (hide spoiler)] Once they did that, I couldn't enjoy anything else that happened. I powered through, hoping Dekker would save the book the book with one of his trademark endings, but it just... It whiffed-- was totally disappointing, and I could never summon the drive to read books two, or three.

It is disappointing. I won't judge it yet but I am coming to that last page swiftly and it isn't getting better. Mojo I am putting the spoiler tags so other people that haven't read them don't get it spoiled but I have a few thing to say about your spoiler.
(view spoiler)[He has been doing that a lot in the second and third books he keeps killing main characters I already didn't like the characters but now that he keeps killing them I refuse to like the characters because I know they will die. (hide spoiler)]

@DH: yeah, true that. (view spoiler)[He does do that a lot, but usually, I can forgive it, but with Forbidden... I didn't care much for Rom as it was; the only thing that made him likable was Avra and his history with her-- loving her even before he was capable of love. That was so cool... I couldn't care less about Feyn; I thought she was a dumb addition to the story, and all the storylines surrounding her seemed really annoying to me.

The villains were pretty good. I liked just how evil Feyn's brother was... But then, we had the "evil church" controlling and killing people, and once again, Christians were thrown under the bus. (hide spoiler)]

(view spoiler)[Feyn sucks but I liked Saric but if I told you why that would be a spoiler for you. (hide spoiler)]

Spoil away. I don't plan on ever reading the books anyway, lol...

(view spoiler)[Okay so before the second book Rom takes Jonathan out to live with the nomads and his blood matures so they convert themselves so they have emotions and almost super powers and they call themselves mortal. In the second book Saric genetically creates a race called dark bloods to destroy the mortals and they have the emotions saric displayed in the first book plus blind loyalty to Saric. Saric brings Feyn back to life and makes her dark blood Rom wants to save her the head of the nomads turned mortal want to eradicate the dead. Jonathan is telling them they are doing it all wrong by the way Jonathan has a body guard who is in love with him.
Feyn, Saric and Rom argue.
Rom negotiates to get Feyn because he thinks she still is on his side but she betrays them.
A huge battle happens in the dessert between the dark bloods and the mortals Jonathan gives up his life to Saric who kills him and Saric disappears. Jordin (The bodyguard in love with Jonathan)says they have to take Jonathans dead blood. Rom and a few others follow but the rest of the mortals refuse. So ends the the second book. (hide spoiler)]

The villain's plan seems like something I'd enjoy reading, but... The rest of it doesn't sound like my kinda thing, lol...

Yeah I am bored.

Let us know what you think after you've finished it.

I am currently reading outlaw. It was okay for like the first 200 pages, I mean I guess if that's what you like to read about it might be good. But after those first 200, it's started to really become interesting and is making me think about stuff, something I cannot say about his last couple of books

So...convince me to read books by this guy. I never heard of him until I read through this thread. :)

What kind of books do you like, Dee?

Hmmm...I love mostly fiction! I rarely am entertained by nonfiction. (Unless it is mythology shelved in the nonfition aisle in the library.) I am also a HUGE fan of fantasy.
I enjoy Christian Historical Fiction, Mysteries (doesn't have to be Christian), Fantasy (I read a lot of the contemporary YA titles)...etc...

As long as it entertains me, has a good plot, and doesn't drag, I'm in! :)

I always recommend the Circle series first...
Since you like mysteries, perhaps Three (Thr3e? I can't remember how he spelled it!).
Blink is another good one, although I'm always forgetting that it exists.
Obsession (Obsessed?)

Can you tell how awful I am at remembering titles?

Start with Black. If you like fantasy, Black is the one to start with. After that, you might just want to finish off the Circle, though I went to the next book in chronological order of the story. Which was Chosen; and Chosen is YA book that starts a five book series.

What? I read Black, Red, White, the Books of History, then Green (because the Books of History were published between White and Green)...

Jennifer wrote: "What? I read Black, Red, White, the Books of History, then Green (because the Books of History were published between White and Green)..."

But Chosen takes place before Red and Green.

If you look at the timeline of the universe; it goes Green/Black (books 0 and 1)
then Chosen (Books of History #1), Infidel (#2), Renegade(#3), Chaos (#4),
then Red (Circle #2), then Lunatic (Books of history #5) and Elyon (#6),
then White (Circle #3), then Green/Black (books 0 and 1)

Arg. My brain.....

I think Ted just likes messing with our heads...