AnniePorthouse.com

(book review: Ted Dekker’s ‘Black’)

Yes, it’s conceivable that I’m lagging slightly behind. ‘Black’, by Ted Dekker, was published in 2004 (the same year as my Dear Bob was reprinted, coincidentally). Still, I’ve only just read it. So there.

I’m not a fan of Christian fiction, which is both ironic and plain daft, as it’s what I write. So many Christian novels are sub-standard, compared with secular fiction (which I read copious amounts of… too much… no wonder my housework remains untouched!).
Is it that the authors aren’t pushed enough by the publishers to produce what they’re capable of?
Not sure.
Perhaps.

But there are exceptions. For example, I loved the Left Behind (LB) series. It wasn’t well written. Characters were flat. Lots of unnecessary preachy bits, sometimes several pages long. And so on. But the PLOT… was fab. Despite the criticism, no one can deny that they sold well, and made both Christians and the unchurched consider the second coming. The concept… the idea of what the world might be like post-rapture… gripping stuff.

And then you’ve got The Shack (by William Young). Couldn’t stand it. Very long and drawn out… very preachy (without moving the plot along in any way shape or form)… quite dull and boring… nothing gained.
Whereas some of the proposed theology in LB was a little shaky (to say the least) I was generally on board with what was presented in The Shack. Found myself agreeing with the majority of it. It just wasn’t a ‘good read’, in my opinion. Still, it too sold trillions of copies, and ostensibly introduced the many unchurched to God. You can’t argue with that. Even I can’t argue with that, much as I’d love to. If it helped anyone to ‘know’ God in a new or different way, my hat goes off to Mr Young. Truly.

But now to the point (!)… ‘Black’. A fabulous read. Half thriller (of the ‘biological warfare’ variety) and half fantasy (of the Peretti ‘demon V human’ variety). At first I was dismayed at the inclusion of the fantasy sections, but soon started relishing them. I’ve tended to disregard (secular) thrillers that even hint at fantasy, of any sort, but perhaps because this was ‘Christian’ fantasy, I could cope with it; it had an obvious purpose.
The protagonist, Thomas Hunter, is having dreams. Not normal ones… vivid ones. Lucid ones. (And as someone with a tendency to dream lucidly, this was of some interest to me.)
One minute he’s in the ‘real’ world… attempting to stop the baddie terrorists from releasing a deadly virus worldwide… that kind of ‘real’. The next he’s in a Garden-of-Eden style world, where he’s fighting bat-like demons whilst getting to know the Garden’s creator and sustainer. As the novel progresses, he (and we) realise that the two ‘worlds’ are connected… but how? And how will he save both worlds?

I desperately want to tell you that, as per the LB series, it was only the plot that I loved, whereas the writing style, or character formation, or pace, etc, was pants. It would suit me more if this were the case, as it would support my theory about the lack of quality Christian fiction currently on the market. But it’s simply untrue. Dekker writes a good thriller. Sure, I’ve read superior secular thrillers, but there’s not much in it. And the fantasy stuff just got better and better… I found it moving, engrossing, thought-provoking… sometimes all at once!

Turns out this is the first in a series of twelve.
Anyone free to come and manage my housework while I read them…?!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 16th, 2010 at 11:55 am and is filed under reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.