Those who know me in the obscure part of life known to some as "The Real World" know that I do not often express the raging sea of emotions that constantly swirls around inside my brain. Think Jamie Hyneman. Think Mister Spock. Yeah. I'm kinda like them. I'm sure some people think I'm the human equivalent of an android, but that's okay, because they can think whatever they want.I don't know why I tend to bottle up my emotions. I guess it's just the way I'm made. I spend about 95% of my waking hours alone inside my head anyway, so it only makes sense that my emotions stay put there, too.The reason I'm talking about my emotions is because this book made me shed a tear. Maybe two. I don't know; I didn't count. But you know it takes a lot to do that to someone like me. It happens on occasion with other authors--I got misty-eyed reading Dean Koontz's Odd Thomas and Stephen King's Bag of Bones--but I think that Red is the fourth or fifth Ted Dekker book that has made one of those mysterious beads of moisture well up in my eye.In Red, Thomas Hunter lives in both twenty-first century America and "Other Earth," which is regular Earth only about two millennia in the future. Every time he falls asleep in one world he awakens in the other. Current Earth is currently (ha-ha) undergoing a terrible crisis in which everyone on the planet has been infected with a lethal virus, and the people who hold the antivirus are using it as a political tool to gain world domination. (Reviewer's note: Please read Black first. Then you will know what I'm talking about.)In Other Earth, Thomas leads the Forest Dwellers against the evil desert-dwelling Horde who forsook Elyon's (God's) love. Each group wishes to obliterate the other, and each suffers heavy losses in battle. But a rogue warrior named Justin, formerly of the Forest Guard, wishes to make peace with the Horde. The Forest Dwellers think this is blasphemy and wish to put him to death. But Justin has many followers. He preaches a gospel of love and basically tells the Forest Dwellers they're a bunch of hypocrites because they're really no different from the Horde. Now here is where I think Thomas is a little clueless. In regular Earth he's the estranged son of an army chaplain, and if I had been in his shoes, I would have been like, "Yo, Justin. You're like the second coming of Christ. Far out!" But Thomas is as blind as the rest of the Forest Dwellers and even has a duel against Justin. (Guess who loses.)Anyway, those of you who know what happened to Jesus can probably guess what happens to Justin, only I think that Christ had the easier way out than Justin does. The thing about these books that moves me to the core is the way unconditional love plays so prominently in everything the characters do. The modern parallels with Scripture make me look at Christ in a new light. The gospel reading in church this past Sunday was Luke 4:21-30, where Jesus was speaking in the synagogue and made everyone so mad that they tried to hurl him off of a hilltop. People thought he was nuts! Just like the Forest Dwellers thought that Justin was nuts. And little does everyone know that the one they are persecuting is their own God!So yeah. I shed a tear. But it was a good tear.By the way, Dustin of Washington, I hope you're happy that I actually wrote a heartfelt, long-winded review this time around. :)Bailey out.
The second installment of the Circle Trilogy did not disappoint but managed to choke me even more than "Black" - the first book that everyone should read prior to experiencing "Red". It has been a long, long time since a book made me tear up and this roused up with emotions and abyssal feelings that only very skilled writers can exude from their reader. This is a fascinating installment that takes Thomas Hunter, the man who lives in our reality when awake and also in another world when he dreams at nigh, on the wildest ride of his life. This can only be described as a new form of allegory; characters who understand our world are reflected in the dream world which is engulfed in a battle of massive proportions, people are no longer standing for an idea, they are someone else in the other world and if they die then those consequences spill over and threaten everything that Thomas and his sister ever knew.America is in the hot seat with the release and spread of a deadly virus, and Thomas must use his dreams to find answers and ways to stop it before he is eradicated and he can dream no more. Those who oppose him want him dead and want his dreams to stop but others who love life have nothing left but the hope that he can save them - easier said than done, Ted Dekker likes to swing his heroes and foes as deep as his mind allows, and this is one hairy book, it takes a lot of sweat and guts to take this ride.In the dream world those who rejected Elyon's waters have turned to Desert Dwellers known as Scabs, dry and disease stricken nomads, their minds and eyes are ashen with sickness and visions of death and conquests, the worship Teeleh and the Shataiki and will stop at nothing until the remaining forests and their people are destroyed. In real life Thomas is on hot pursuit to find and rescue the one person who can stop the Raison Virus; the creator of the vaccine herself - Monique de Raison. Her role in the story is much deeper than the reader might think of and I actually guessed part of her secret, it felt amazing thought to live with the characters are see how they developed and how some changed for better and some for worse. Carlos and other mercenaries of death are on hot pursuit and the reader is in for a delicious treat of intrigue, some romance and countless twists and turns.In this book Ted Dekker writes an ultimate showdown between good and evil, and it's been done to the death in books and movies but this novel is simply astounding. I read it in two days and would have read it in one sitting if I wasn't sick with a bad cold, it was truly a book that I know will stay with me forever and I am simply dying to read the last installment "White". These books are so deep and moving they are impossible to describe in a review, instead they should be enjoyed like a fine meal, one that serves more than one purpose to feed, it enriches the user forever and I feel blessed to have taken this journey with Dekker and his friends and foes. So please enjoy and take away from the riches that make the heart beat faster and the head spin - these books read like nothing else and are extremely satisfying.- Kasia S.
What do You think about Red: The Heroic Rescue (2005)?
I loved "Black" the first book in the circle trilogy but I was blown away by "Red" the second in the series. I truly enjoyed reading this one. Red moves the story very quickly forward towards the inevitable but it is an adventure that is filled with love, faith, atonement, and spirituality. This epic adventure leads you to look inward at yourself and to draw many parallel conclusions. Red is the rare case where the sequel is better than the first. I really recommend this series for all fiction readers, not just those that love the fantasy genre.
—Jason
A marked improvement on Black: The Birth of Evil, this second/third installment in the collection has a markedly faster pace and much more energetic storyline. The virus is released, the cure seems impossible and the end of the world appears to be nigh. Will Thomas be able to save the day?There are some beautiful illustrations and allegories of the Christian faith and sacrifice. It does stray into the area of preachy at times, but mostly it's just a pleasant "other way" of viewing things. It will be interesting to see how Dekker develops this in the next segments of the story.
—Alana
Ted Dekker never ceases to amaze me with his superior storytelling abilities. I was blown away by the raw emotion that this book was able to draw from me -- someone who has difficulty tearing up even at the most heart-wrenching movies and novels. And yet, I found myself in such a state of both sorrow and joy during this book that there were moments I was forced to hug a tissue box. Dekker not only brings his parallels to the Bible to life in "Red", but he also brings the parallel of Jesus into a such an extensive light of love, compassion, mercy, and grace that I was left to marvel in tears at how he managed it. "Red" is by far my favorite out of The Circle series and I cannot give enough praise to Dekker for his amazing creation.
—Hannah
