Green
// October 27th, 2009 // Reviews
by Ted Dekker
read by Tim Gregory
If you’ve been reading this blog for long, you know how much I appreciate Ted Dekker’s writing. My daughter told me last week that Part 4 of his Trilogy (huh?) had been released a few weeks back. I didn’t read the press about it beforehand, so they’re probably calling it a prequel to the Trilogy, or whatever. Bottom line: It’s another long novel (15 hrs, I think) in the same worlds covered in Black, Red and White (the Trilogy). It’s the story of Thomas Hunter and his trips between two worlds, a superflu infection, technology, relationships, God, a devil-type character called Tileh and a bunch of other people and creatures.
It’s a huge, sprawling story of adventure, endurance, love, war, a search for meaning, racism, conquest and obedience. In other words, it has a lot in common with LIFE.
Dekker spins this wonderful yarn with amazing clarity of focus. Of course, there is a bit of repetition, as with all fiction…but the body-fat count on his writing is amazingly low. This guy writes faster than I can read!! I would definitely recommend these books to anyone who enjoys a thriller, a bit of a sci-fi edge (though not too much), and who is open to interesting ideas regarding spiritual matters. After all, what are spiritual beings but those who are traveling in some dimension parallel to our own…with different capabilities and boundaries than those we experience here? Dekker has a lot of these kinds of situations in his books. He comes from a Christian perspective, but hardly reminds the reader of the kind of hyper-legalistic spiritual instruction that’s typified the church in the past.
Tim Gregory does a fine job narrating the book. I had been a bit disappointed in his effort on a previous Dekker tome, but didn’t hear any of the same issues this time with mispronunciations, and I felt his voice characterizations for the very wide range of characters were quite strong. So he gets an A grade from me this time. Quite well done!
Two big thumbs up on just about anything Ted Dekker writes. I suppose he isn’t going to be everyone’s cup o’ tea…but I certainly give him (and this book, and the other parts of the series) my highest recommendation!
I like his other books and will definetly read/listen to this book. I heard some of his books are being made into movies.
Movies always seem to ruin a good book in my opinion. It seems very rare when a movie actually is made as good as the book is written.