The concept is actually rather fascinating. I just wish the writer was better.

There are 2 "realities" in the story - the modern day "realistic" one is actually well-done and quite interesting. The fantasy world is a bit too... err... poetically Christian? In the "realistic" world, Thomas Hunter is being shot at, but then when he sleeps and pops into the "fantasy" world, there is page after page after page of "The Great Romance".

This is the part that bothered me the most. Of course, it is Christian fiction so there is lots of God and feel-good-ness abounding throughout the story, but.... the whole "Great Romance" part of the story feels like the author was trying to pretend he was writing as a (bad) female romance novelist - "oh woo her Thomas!" "Oh, fight imaginary monsters to protect her Thomas!"

GAG!!! This foray into a bad imitation of chick lit romance ruined what was otherwise a very decent and interesting story. I won't read the rest in the series - it's just not good enough to waste time on. ( )

I did not like this book. It was really hard to get into no matter how hard i tried. The plot is ridiculous, the charachters very stale, no development for them whatsoever. I might try some of his thrillers, but as for this trilogy, wont be reading them. ( )

“I liked the concept of this book. Tom goes to sleep in one world and lives in another while he sleeps. The fantasy world is imaginitive and interesting. However, I just couldn't get into the characters, except for Rachelle, who I absolutely hated. And I think she's a character that you're supposed to like.

The allegorical components of this story were a little heavily applied for my taste, but otherwise, it's a pretty good book. ( )

First part of a trilogy set in two worlds, both facing disaster. Cliffhanger ending. Looking forward to reading part two... ( )

Freaky and good. Great way to overlap the two stories! ( )

i couldn't put this book down! It was an extremely good read, especially if you enjoy adventure. ( )

Dekker's "Black" opens a trilogy intended to be classic thriller, scifi other-world story, and an allegory for the Christian story of the fall through redemption. As a thriller it's decent enough. As a scifi other-world story and allegory, it's pretty well done. Certainly, Black was good enough to keep me reading, and by the end, I was hard pressed to put it down without finishing. I'm hoping the rest of the trilogy keeps going as well! ( )

Good book! Dekker definitely leaves you turning the pages and wanting more. I'm anxious to read the rest of the trilogy. ( )

This was a fun read, very fast. His language isn't terribly sophisticated, and many of the plot elements are derivative of contemporary movies like the4 Matrix or Lord of the Rings. But it is terribly fun. And he does manage to create some pretty effective metaphors for Christian and human love. A fun way to think about the Tribulation, more imaginitive than many of the other end times thrillers out there.

Wow...what a book! I was kind of wary of it at first...I don't usually go in for modern-day...but this did not disappoint, and went high above my expectations! ( )

The first book in "The Circle" trilogy... clearly a trilogy in the "Lord of the Rings" sense: that each book does not conclude... it is really one very long novel, in three distinct parts. Thomas Hunter (Thomas as in Doubting Thomas, Hunter as in one who seeks) lives a reckless and somewhat meaningless life, but after being shot by a thug, finds that each night he dreams of another world. A fantasy world where good and evil are both pure. A world as real as his own. When he falls asleep in that world, he wakes up in his original life. Both are equally real. Dekker's story in our world, of a madman getting hold of a virus which can kill everyone on earth, is the better half of the story. His development of the alternate world is a little weaker, but still quite intersting. I am eager to move on to the next book, "Red", and see what happens next. ( )

This is the first book in the 'Circle Trilogy'. I think of it as a cross between Narnia, Philip Pullmans Dark Materials trilogy, and the TV hit series '24'.
Everytime the main character goes to sleep in 'our world' he wakes up in a different world, and vice-versa.
The story in the 'other' world, is, over the 3 books, the Christian story of the 'fall through to redemption'.
I enjoyed this book, but kept reading because I wanted to know what happened rather than because I couldn't put it down. ( )

As long as you can get through this book, the series is great. With Dekker's skill in writing, I don't know why he made this one slog through the plot so many times. All around, series is great with many spiritual insights that will stick with you for a very long time. I can't tell you how many times I've thought about it since I read the books a couple years ago.

Awesome book. The image that he paints of Heaven just blows your mind. ( )

Good suspense novel (without being scary or creepy). There's a little scifi or fantasy here, too. The main character travels between worlds. Everytime he falls asleep in one place he wakes up in the other. In each world he must save the people from destruction. This is the first in The Circle Trilogy. ( )

Review by Jeremy Taylor

Black is the first book of a trilogy, all three books of which are scheduled to be released in 2004. This is an ambitious project, to be sure, and it takes a daring author to pull it off. In doing so, Ted Dekker will establish himself as a major player in the CBA marketplace and will likely be hailed as a visionary author because of his subject material, much of which is largely new to CBA readers.

In Black, Dekker has culled what he feels is the best material from a previous, unpublished manuscript called Song of Eden. The earlier work was never published mainly because it was a little too far outside the CBA mindset for publishers to accept. The revised effort is still a bit unconventional, but Thomas Nelson has decided to take a chance, and it will almost certainly be a well worth their investment.

Ted Dekker is becoming well known for his Frank Peretti–like ability to take readers to familiar places but with some new twist. His previous novel THR3E, for example, is set in a very normal seeming contemporary world but leads readers through a suspenseful cat-and-mouse chase between the protagonist and an unknown criminal and ends with a shocking (and somewhat unbelievable) twist. In Black, Dekker asks his readers to follow him through two distinct but concurrent storylines taking place on two distinct but interrelated worlds.

Thomas Hunter is a pretty average guy. Raised a missionary kid in the Philippines, he went through some rough years after relocating to the United States. Now he works at a coffee shop while trying to make it as a writer. Pretty typical stuff. Until the day he gets shot at by an unknown assailant, loses consciousness, and wakes up in another world.

So begins the double-reality existance of Thomas Hunter. Each time Thomas falls asleep (or gets knocked out, which happens just as often) in one world, he wakes up in the other world, all but convinced that his recent experiences in the world where he fell asleep are just a dream. One world is the “real” world—the world we all live in. The other is a near-perfect utopia where evil has not yet been released from its containment, where the inhabitants in their innocence desire nothing more than to pursue the “Great Romance” and worship their creator-god, Elyon. Switching back and forth between these two realities, Thomas soon becomes embroiled in a race to stop a madman who wants to release a deadly virus that could wipe out the entire population in one world while racing to stop the release of the evil Shataiki from the Black Forest in the other. The fate of each world depends on his success in the other. If he fails, both worlds may be destroyed.

While the concept of a dual reality is certainly not a new one (think Back to the Future meets C. S. Lewis), it may prove to be new enough to CBA readers to make the trilogy successful. Even though secular authors have written on this theme (many of the themes and plot sequences in Black are reminiscent of Stephen King’s Dark Tower series, for example), most CBA readers haven’t experienced it yet. When and if they do experience it through Ted Dekker, they might just elevate him to a new level of Christian literary heroism.

For all its ingenuity, however, Black has some difficulties. Beyond simple physical fantasies that could easily fall under the label of literary license (like medical vaccinations that mutate into a deadly virus when exposed to extreme heat), there are plot inconsistencies that are never addressed. The peaceful, enemy-free inhabitants of Thomas Hunter’s alternate reality, for example, are for some reason that is never explained experts in deadly martial arts fighting. For another, whenever Thomas is conscious in the utopia world, he has no memory extending beyond the beginning of the novel, a phenomenon that is talked about but never adequately explained. Related to this is Thomas’s frustrating tendency to feel that the utopia world is his ultimate reality, even though he has no memory, while his “real-world” reality is just a dream, a lifetime of memories and relationships notwithstanding. There is one rather far-fetched scene where Thomas tries to convince his sister that she is just a figment of his sleeping imagination. The relationship between the two worlds is also never satisfactorily dealt with. We do learn how it is possible for Thomas to predict future events in the real world by asking questions of the “wise ones” in the utopia world, but we never figure out how Thomas can, for example, know where to find a kidnapping victim in the real world by asking a character in the utopia world where she would most like to be rescued from.

Other problems exist as well. In what I have come to think of as the classic error of Christian fiction writers, Dekker focuses so well on making the story suspenseful that he neglects to bring much realism or feeling to the dialog and general narrative. Conversations between characters never quite seem real. Descriptions like “really, really bad” abound. Dekker misses opportunities to bring a more literary element to his otherwise superb storytelling

Because the action of the story takes place in two different worlds, Dekker is able to present his readers with two separate climaxes. One of them—the climax that takes place in the utopia world—he does to great effect. The other fizzles. Because Black is the first book of three in the series, it is possible that some of the questionable plot elements will be resolved in later books. It remains to be seen how book 2 will deal with the frustrating conclusion of book 1. The following is not the last passage of the book, but it’s close (this doesn’t give anything away): “So Thomas ate the rhambutan fruit every day and not once did he dream of Bangkok. Or of anything. Weeks passed, then months, then years, then fifteen years, and not once did Thomas dream of Bangkok. Or of anything. He became a mighty warrior who defended the seven forests against the desert Hoards who marched against them. But not once did he dream. Not of Bangkok, not of anything.” Summing up fifteen years of unnarrated action in a single sentence is in my opinion the epitome of amateur writing.

Some readers may have difficulty with the allegorical model of Thomas Hunters alternate utopia world. The notion of a God-like character who reveals himself as a small child have some basis in Scripture but may strike some readers as odd. On the other hand, the scenes where Thomas interacts with Elyon paint a vivid picture of what it might be like when God’s people reach heaven and can talk face to face—and laugh and even play—with their Creator.

CBA fiction authors could probably learn quite a bit from Ted Dekker. He has put together a marketing machine (for instance, calling 2004 “the year of the trilogy”) that will almost certainly work wonders for his series. But Dekker has a lot to learn as well before his books can become more than simple entertainment. Black is a quite suspenseful story that is far from excellently written. It is shamelessly allegorical and follows predictible patterns. It is confusing at times, entertaining throughout, and promises readers two more volumes of the same. If in his next two books Dekker can get rid of the plot problems that plague book 1, this trilogy has the potential to be a huge success.

(http://www.cerebralexchange.com/books...) ( )

http://keflon.blogspot.com/2006/01/bl... ( )