The Waters Turn Red: Book Review on Red

The Waters Turn Red

5 Stars

In Red, we now find Thomas Hunter a commander of the Forest Guard. Known as Thomas the Hunter, he’s lived fifteen years in the world of his dreams. He’s a man with two lives – one in a surreal world and one on earth. As a commander, Thomas leads his troops in a war against the Horde – a terrifying tribe that lives in the desert. Thomas fights them off to protect the forest where he and his family reside.

In one of these battles, the Horde invades the Forest people with a massive army. They intend to destroy the forest and all who live in it. This time, Thomas is outnumbered and outmaneuvered. He has to find a way to stop the Horde before they reach the forest. Thomas is struck with an idea; maybe he’ll be able to find information from the other world and use it here.

Thomas dreams and wakes up on earth. He has to find something that will save him and the Forest people. He discovers that explosives can be made and used against the Horde in the other world. Thomas gets the info that he needs to make black powder and falls asleep again. When he wakes up in the other reality, he grabs his best warriors and gets straight to work. They search frantically for the ingredients and eventually find all of them.

Thomas gathers the ingredients and pounds them together. While this is happening, the Horde camps out near the border, preparing to strike the next day. Thomas knows this, and he intends to set off his explosives before they do. He readies the explosives near huge cliffs that are situated close to the Horde camp. Thomas is ready. He and his men set fire to the first row of explosives.

My Thoughts on Red:

With Red, the story continues on from Black. Compared with the first book, I think Red is better. The pages are filled with action, and the story is well conceived. In Black, the storyline had more explaining/describing in it. Because of this, I flew through Red faster than Black. There were a few parts in Red that completely surprised me (An “I was not expecting that!” moment). If I could say just one thing about this book, it would be that it flows nicely. Why? The reading is easy. If you like Black, then you’ll really like Red.

Ted Dekker is superb, and I’m impressed with his writing. His characters in both Black and Red are well developed and realistic. Reading Black and Red has left an impression on me, and I know that I will be reading more of his books.

If you like fantasy mixed with allegory, then you’ll enjoy the Circle series. Fans of Frank Peretti will also like these books. Be sure to read Black, Red, White, and Green in the Circle series!

Visit Ted Dekker’s website here: teddekker.com

*Note* This review was written for this blog and for New Release Tuesday

God bless!
~Grace Thorson

The Beginning of Darkness: Book Review on Black

The Beginning of Darkness

5 Stars

Thomas Hunter is reckless and he often finds himself in the stickiest of situations. He starts out running from a couple of gangsters in an alleyway of Denver. Bullets fly by his head and his world goes completely dark. He wakes up in a strange new world inhabited with black bats and a man named Bill. The black bats look menacing as they watch him from their perches high atop the trees. Suddenly, the bats attack Thomas and darkness overtakes him.

Thomas Hunter wakes up from his dream and discovers that he’s in a garbage bin. He finds his way back home, closes the blinds, and turns off the lights. He’s waiting for the gangsters to arrive. In this tense moment, his sister, Kara, walks in. She’s stunned when she sees him holding a machete. Thomas tells her everything that’s happened – how real his dream was, the gangsters, and his head wound.

Kara stares at her brother and thinks he’s gone totally mad. She cleans the head wound for Thomas while he spills out all the details. He had borrowed money from the gangsters to bail his mom out of jail and buy a few other things. Kara is a nurse and so she gives Thomas some pain medicine. He drifts off to sleep and wakes up in an unreal world but somehow he feels like he’s been here before.

Thomas starts to doubt that he’s really dreaming about the black bats. Maybe he’s really dreaming about Kara. Perhaps Kara isn’t real and this is all just a dream. He wakes up and tells Kara that all of this isn’t real. She’s not convinced, and he makes the decision that he can prove it to her. He’ll do it. Thomas Hunter opens the door of his apartment, walks out to the railing and prepares to jump.

My Thoughts on Black:

In the first few chapters, this book literally grabs you, shakes you around, and never lets go. But in the later chapters, it wasn’t as exciting and I did lose some interest. When it came to the plot, I wasn’t surprised like I thought I was going to be. I had read that people mentioned that there were lots of twists and turns but it didn’t seem like that to me. That’s not to say that it didn’t have any but not what I would classify as “lots”.

You have to read this book carefully because it has many allegorical references. Some were easy to distinguish, some were harder, and I probably missed a few as well.

This is my first book that I’ve read of Ted Dekker, and he’s an incredibly gifted author. His writing seems so effortless that it’s never confusing. He can describe almost anything in his book, and I can easily envision it all. That’s a hard thing for an author to do, nonetheless do it so perfectly and in a strange fantasy world.

I highly recommend this book to readers who love fantasy/allegorical themes, supernatural thrillers, and Frank Peretti.

Check out Ted Dekker’s website: teddekker.com

This review was written for this blog and New Release Tuesday

God bless!
~Grace Thorson