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mjestel's review against another edition
2.0
The first book of "The Circle" series. After a deadly virus destroys the earth, the remaining civilizations are at war thousands of years later. Time travel may be the only chance to save the world. I might give the next few books a chance next year, but I felt like Dekker just had too much happening in this one novel. There are vampires, time travel, monsters, and some religious undertones throughout that make a weird mix. Time travel is possible from magic books, a character traveling through time when he sleeps, and other characters taking over the consciousness of characters from different times, it got a little too complicated very quickly and I wish Dekker had stayed in one lane. The series had a lot of potential, but I'm not sure how we will make it all work.
abby_schultz's review against another edition
1.0
Not a fan. The premise of the book sounded very interesting; an apocalypse destroying the current version of reality while another conjoined world could either be the future world or the historical world, with a science-fiction flare, which is exactly why I picked up the whole Circle series…however it was a straight up Christianity rip-off. Same religious story we all know, just using different names.
To be fair, I would not have picked up this series had I known it was Christian fiction, not my jam at all, but it was just so on the nose of the religious story of the beginning of time and choosing god and dying to live…I found myself rolling my eyes at how unoriginal the story was.
To be fair, I would not have picked up this series had I known it was Christian fiction, not my jam at all, but it was just so on the nose of the religious story of the beginning of time and choosing god and dying to live…I found myself rolling my eyes at how unoriginal the story was.
inspiretruthblog's review against another edition
1.0
I couldn't finish this book. Unlike the other books in The Circle series, I wasn't really engrossed in the storyline. There was a lot of repetition about what happened in the other books and I couldn't connect with the characters like I could before. I also hated that Ted Dekker kept using the word 'whore.' Also, the sensuality and gore in this book was not necessary, I practically had to skip a whole chapter because I was so uncomfortable with the sacrifice that was taking place. I was really disappointed in this series because my friend had told me such great things about it. Honestly, I wish I would've stopped after reading White (even though I had lots of questions after the ending).
leahann81's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
tmawhir's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
emiscurious's review against another edition
1.0
Originally written in 2017.
This review will have spoilers. It's also very long, since I'm writing this right after finishing the book, and I'm feeling very mad and motivated to write bad stuff about it. HOWEVER, I enjoyed Black, Red, and White, and Ted Dekker is a good writer, so I'm not trying to smash the series or him. I'm just smashing this book.
This book makes me sad. Like really sad. Dekker, why would you do this. I'm depressed with the whole dang series now.
I read all four of the Circle Series books in a row in the course of about a week (I started with Black, and I would never recommend ever starting with Green), so I was really immersed in the life of Thomas Hunter. His world was my world for a whole week, and it was a fun ride. Black, Red, and White were all fun. I'd label all three of them as: "pretty good." BUT GREEN SUCKS ALL OF THE "PRETTY" AND THE "GOOD" RIGHT OUT. I'm just going to list out all of the things I hated about it in no particular order:
1. The Thomas Hunter I knew and loved was no more. He was replaced by a crybaby who had no backbone and couldn't answer ANY of the Circle's theological questions and doubts! He literally had the Gospel of John, and I was WAITING every single moment for him to whip it out, yell at everyone to shut up and sit down, and just read the Truth word for word. You'd think that he'd do that, since they're the very words of God, and since he saw Chelise so affected by it back in White. BUT NO. He either stands there speechless, or curls up in a ball and cries whenever something bad happens in this entire book. I loved the Thomas of Black, Red, and (some of) White.
2. What's with the "IF I CAN'T BE WITH MY LOVER 24/7 I'M GONNA DIIIIE SHE'S MY LIFFFFE NOTHING MATTERS TO ME WITHOUT HERRRR"?? Boy. Get a hold of yourself. I get that Dekker was trying to show how God's love for us is like a husband's and wife's love for each other, but the connection stops when it gets to the point where your spouse becomes your god. That's not how it works. GOD should be the ultimate thing that satisfies you, NOT your lover. Besides, Thomas did just fine before he got a girlfriend. I would say that he was way more level-headed.
3. I believe the Bible says that Jesus' sacrifice for us, his death, is once for all. His blood wipes away our sin for good. Drowning in Elyon's red lakes represented that. Samuel drowned in those lakes, as well as every other member of the circle. Therefor, Samuel should never have died unsaved, and none of the Circle members should have turned into Horde. And for what? They weren't really rejecting Elyon or rejecting the basics for being saved: believing that Jesus is Lord and that he died for our sins. THAT'S what saves. All Samuel and the ones that followed him did was not love the Horde, and not loving people, though sinful, should not qualify as losing your salvation...? Maybe people who believe you can "fall from grace" should illuminate this part for me.
4. Vampires... are you kidding me right now...
5. Janae and Billy were very interesting at first, since I didn't know if they were good or bad, or if they'd turn to Elyon in the end or not. The first time Janae kissed Billy and then bit his lip and drew blood, I thought, "uh... you guys like just met and everything I'm confuzzled. And that's gross, but whatever." And then Janae did it again. And again. AND again. As if Dekker was trying to make me go "OHH SHOCKER, they're so evil" every time. But I eventually kept thinking, "this is getting old. And everything to do with their 'love' is sick."
6. It just seems to me like this entire book was a flaunting of evil. Teeleh got away. Marsuuv got away. Janae got away. Billy got away. Every other chapter was a sensual garbage can of messed up "love" that never got destroyed. That was unsatisfying and infuriating. I was interested in it and everything, but I just couldn't help but want Justin to charge in with a "hiya!" and smite them all every single time I read about them. During the Elijah challenging the Ba'al worshippers/Abraham offering his son Isaac twist scene (phew that was a mouth full), I couldn't help but feel like evil was winning. It just kept coming and coming and coming, wave after wave of evil, "MORE blood!" I could hear Dekker cry in the distance... And the whole time Thomas and his gang doubted Elyon. So did I. "This is not the God I know" I thought. The God in the Bible didn't even let anyone show up and set fire to the Ba'al offering. And when Elijah called on him, he immediately boasted his power and BOOM fire from the heavens rained down that made Ba'al look puny. Elijah's funny lines like, "yell louder, Ba'al must be sleeping!" just displayed his immense confidence in God in that great story. But that is NOT what happened in this book. Shataiki showed up in all their might, Marsuuv possessed Ba'al and actually KILLED Samuel, hundreds of priests all bled themselves to death, and Elyon did nothing to stop it until the last second, when his flashlight came down and scared off the Shataiki and rose Samuel from the dead. I was like "PHEW FINALLY" and was interested to see Samuel lose all of his doubt in Elyon and Quorong to do the same, but no. This display of Elyon's power changed nothing. This whole scene did NOTHING except make me think that evil was the more powerful one here, having lost none of its followers. FURTHER ON in the story, when the end of the world battle takes place, Elyon sweeps in and... scares off the Shataiki? Where's Billy and Janae getting their annoying butts kicked? Where's Teeleh and Marsuuv getting thrown into the lake of fire where they belong? WHERE'S EVIL GETTING VANQUISHED? *sigh* Also, apparently Billy appeared in our world as the antichrist...? That was a huge and unaddressed bomb...
7. And finally, the ending. THIS is what made me give this book one star. It's... bad on so many levels. So the end is finally here, the Bride can finally be reunited with Elyon, her husband, fulfilling the Great Romance. And Thomas decides that living in paradise with God won't be any good without his son. That's horrible thinking. What kind of ideas of heaven does Dekker want us to have? Are humans more important to us than God himself? Samuel made his own choice. Thomas can't save him, only God can. But Dekker tries to tell us in a rushed and lazy ONE page that God decides to send Thomas back in time with a WIPED MEMORY to try to save his son. That's ridiculous. When you continue on with Black, you know that Thomas can never change what happened. God sends Thomas into an endless loop of pain and suffering and knows that Thomas can never get his son back, because that's how it's written. This ending is extremely depressing for me. Thomas never gets to enter paradise, see Rachelle again, taste Elyon's water, BE WITH Elyon and all his Rousch buddies, and he never gets to save his son.
Black, Red, and White were pretty good. Green ruins everything.
This review will have spoilers. It's also very long, since I'm writing this right after finishing the book, and I'm feeling very mad and motivated to write bad stuff about it. HOWEVER, I enjoyed Black, Red, and White, and Ted Dekker is a good writer, so I'm not trying to smash the series or him. I'm just smashing this book.
This book makes me sad. Like really sad. Dekker, why would you do this. I'm depressed with the whole dang series now.
I read all four of the Circle Series books in a row in the course of about a week (I started with Black, and I would never recommend ever starting with Green), so I was really immersed in the life of Thomas Hunter. His world was my world for a whole week, and it was a fun ride. Black, Red, and White were all fun. I'd label all three of them as: "pretty good." BUT GREEN SUCKS ALL OF THE "PRETTY" AND THE "GOOD" RIGHT OUT. I'm just going to list out all of the things I hated about it in no particular order:
1. The Thomas Hunter I knew and loved was no more. He was replaced by a crybaby who had no backbone and couldn't answer ANY of the Circle's theological questions and doubts! He literally had the Gospel of John, and I was WAITING every single moment for him to whip it out, yell at everyone to shut up and sit down, and just read the Truth word for word. You'd think that he'd do that, since they're the very words of God, and since he saw Chelise so affected by it back in White. BUT NO. He either stands there speechless, or curls up in a ball and cries whenever something bad happens in this entire book. I loved the Thomas of Black, Red, and (some of) White.
2. What's with the "IF I CAN'T BE WITH MY LOVER 24/7 I'M GONNA DIIIIE SHE'S MY LIFFFFE NOTHING MATTERS TO ME WITHOUT HERRRR"?? Boy. Get a hold of yourself. I get that Dekker was trying to show how God's love for us is like a husband's and wife's love for each other, but the connection stops when it gets to the point where your spouse becomes your god. That's not how it works. GOD should be the ultimate thing that satisfies you, NOT your lover. Besides, Thomas did just fine before he got a girlfriend. I would say that he was way more level-headed.
3. I believe the Bible says that Jesus' sacrifice for us, his death, is once for all. His blood wipes away our sin for good. Drowning in Elyon's red lakes represented that. Samuel drowned in those lakes, as well as every other member of the circle. Therefor, Samuel should never have died unsaved, and none of the Circle members should have turned into Horde. And for what? They weren't really rejecting Elyon or rejecting the basics for being saved: believing that Jesus is Lord and that he died for our sins. THAT'S what saves. All Samuel and the ones that followed him did was not love the Horde, and not loving people, though sinful, should not qualify as losing your salvation...? Maybe people who believe you can "fall from grace" should illuminate this part for me.
4. Vampires... are you kidding me right now...
5. Janae and Billy were very interesting at first, since I didn't know if they were good or bad, or if they'd turn to Elyon in the end or not. The first time Janae kissed Billy and then bit his lip and drew blood, I thought, "uh... you guys like just met and everything I'm confuzzled. And that's gross, but whatever." And then Janae did it again. And again. AND again. As if Dekker was trying to make me go "OHH SHOCKER, they're so evil" every time. But I eventually kept thinking, "this is getting old. And everything to do with their 'love' is sick."
6. It just seems to me like this entire book was a flaunting of evil. Teeleh got away. Marsuuv got away. Janae got away. Billy got away. Every other chapter was a sensual garbage can of messed up "love" that never got destroyed. That was unsatisfying and infuriating. I was interested in it and everything, but I just couldn't help but want Justin to charge in with a "hiya!" and smite them all every single time I read about them. During the Elijah challenging the Ba'al worshippers/Abraham offering his son Isaac twist scene (phew that was a mouth full), I couldn't help but feel like evil was winning. It just kept coming and coming and coming, wave after wave of evil, "MORE blood!" I could hear Dekker cry in the distance... And the whole time Thomas and his gang doubted Elyon. So did I. "This is not the God I know" I thought. The God in the Bible didn't even let anyone show up and set fire to the Ba'al offering. And when Elijah called on him, he immediately boasted his power and BOOM fire from the heavens rained down that made Ba'al look puny. Elijah's funny lines like, "yell louder, Ba'al must be sleeping!" just displayed his immense confidence in God in that great story. But that is NOT what happened in this book. Shataiki showed up in all their might, Marsuuv possessed Ba'al and actually KILLED Samuel, hundreds of priests all bled themselves to death, and Elyon did nothing to stop it until the last second, when his flashlight came down and scared off the Shataiki and rose Samuel from the dead. I was like "PHEW FINALLY" and was interested to see Samuel lose all of his doubt in Elyon and Quorong to do the same, but no. This display of Elyon's power changed nothing. This whole scene did NOTHING except make me think that evil was the more powerful one here, having lost none of its followers. FURTHER ON in the story, when the end of the world battle takes place, Elyon sweeps in and... scares off the Shataiki? Where's Billy and Janae getting their annoying butts kicked? Where's Teeleh and Marsuuv getting thrown into the lake of fire where they belong? WHERE'S EVIL GETTING VANQUISHED? *sigh* Also, apparently Billy appeared in our world as the antichrist...? That was a huge and unaddressed bomb...
7. And finally, the ending. THIS is what made me give this book one star. It's... bad on so many levels. So the end is finally here, the Bride can finally be reunited with Elyon, her husband, fulfilling the Great Romance. And Thomas decides that living in paradise with God won't be any good without his son. That's horrible thinking. What kind of ideas of heaven does Dekker want us to have? Are humans more important to us than God himself? Samuel made his own choice. Thomas can't save him, only God can. But Dekker tries to tell us in a rushed and lazy ONE page that God decides to send Thomas back in time with a WIPED MEMORY to try to save his son. That's ridiculous. When you continue on with Black, you know that Thomas can never change what happened. God sends Thomas into an endless loop of pain and suffering and knows that Thomas can never get his son back, because that's how it's written. This ending is extremely depressing for me. Thomas never gets to enter paradise, see Rachelle again, taste Elyon's water, BE WITH Elyon and all his Rousch buddies, and he never gets to save his son.
Black, Red, and White were pretty good. Green ruins everything.
dbrousseau14's review against another edition
5.0
Great ending to a great series. Would definitely recommend this to anyone.
junkie_forthe_written_word's review against another edition
3.0
Well, it is a basic tale of good vs evil. And some of the names in the book make my eyes roll. But the world is interesting. The concept is interesting. I enjoyed that he called the bad guys the Horde. hehe (FOR THE HORDE!!!lvl 64 belf) All in all it was worth the read but it won't show up on my favorites list. I'm trying to decide whether to read the other three or not. This book says it's the beginning and the end but it's really the end and an anticlimactical one at that. I don't know if I want to invest myself in three more books that I know the ending to.