The Circle was written by Ted Dekker, an American author of Christian mystery, thriller, and also fantasy novels. It was trilogy written in 2004, but became a series following the release of another sequel in 2009.
This series is about a young man, Thomas Hunter, who was chased by a dangerous mob. During the chase, after which he gets a gunshot wound to the head, loses consciousness and wakes up in an alternate reality which feels like a dream to him. Everything gets terrifying as he learns that a deadly virus is about to be unleashed in the world where he has been chased by a mob and that the other reality which feels like a dream to him is also being threatened with catastrophe. The clock begins to tick for both realities.
About The Author
Ted Dekker, an American author of fantasy, thriller, psychological thriller, Horror, Mystery and Christian mystery. He was born on October 24, 1962 to missionaries who lived among the headhunter tribes of Indonesia. His upbringing made him rely on his imaginations as he grew up as he lived a solitary life. How he got into writing was when he visited a friend who had just published a book and realized that he must pursue his dream of being a writer. Some of his notable works are; Three, House, Adam, The Bride Collector, The Priest's Graveyard, Blink of an eye and The Circle trilogy.
Little Synopsis of all the Four books
Black: The Birth of Evil (Book 1)
Black starts off with the introduction of Valborg Svensson, a multi-billionaire who is craving for exceeding power to be at his fingertips and Carlos Missirian, a highly trained assassin. As the book continues to unfold, it begins as a medical story, but later quickly turns into a science fiction tale that unfolds two alternative worlds realities with a young man named Thomas Hunter in his 20's right in the middle of it. He was caught in the middle of the two world realities when his past caught up with him in Denver, Colorado where he lived with his sister Kara, a Nurse which all happened on a fateful night.
In the other reality, Thomas learnt about a virus, mutated from the Raison Vaccine that would wipe out the entire human race within the span of three weeks in his present-day Earth (Denver) and also evil is threatening to overcome the green forest world. He is left with two worlds to save from destruction.
Red: The Heroic Rescue (Book 2)
This book majorly focused on the other world (green forest) that was created by Elyon (a God-like creature). In this world, time was different from Thomas' world. Thomas had spent fifteen years in the other world (green forest) and fifteen years in the green forest was seven hours in the world of Earth, but the Raison virus had been released and the earth was plagued. Also the title of this book is based on the Heroic act of a former member of the Forest Guard, Justin who was under Thomas because he was immune to the skin disease that plagued the green forest world.
White: The Great Pursuit (Book 3)
From the war that happened in book 2 (Red) where Justin sacrificed himself for Thomas' people (The circle) to live, this book starts off as a new story describing how Thomas and his circle have survived in the desert with the aid of Johan and also how Thomas was on mission on his own earth to eradicate the virus outbreak. He got to meet with the president of America about eradicating the virus with the antidote running through his blood stream, but the question is, will the president of the United States give enough credibility for ruling the nation to someone who appears to know things from his sleep? And while in the other reality, the Circle seeked out Elyon and got accepted by him.
Green: The Beginning and the End (Book 4).
This particular book comprises both the beginning and the End. It was set in 2000 years in the future. The story continues ten years after the Horde invaded the forests and defiled the lakes used by the Forest Dwellers to keep the scabbing disease at bay. The Forest Dwellers are forced out into the desert because of this, but Elyon, in His great mercy, provides a way for the faithful to conquer the disease.
Meanwhile, in the other reality, earth, thirty-five years had passed. Thomas' sister Kara was working together with Monique to help create an antidote with Thomas's blood which was the cure to the Raison virus, but they soon received a visitor from the other reality, Billy , whose mission was to get Thomas Hunter's blood.
My Opinion About The Books, Rating and Recommendations
Ted Dekker is an exceptional writer. His writing style is unique. His descriptive and narrative skills are fantastic. The characters in the story are believable, the setting is terrain which is for the black forest and dialogues are easy to understand.
Dekker puts together imagery of heaven, love, redemption, and salvation into a tangible world that the characters can live in. The book symbolizes the redemption story of Christ. How Christ redeemed us from slavery of sin by dying in the cross for us and shedding his blood for our sake. Also the both books shed more light on Christianity, the war Christian fight with power and principalities.
In the fourth book (Green), Dekker portrayed the light through darkness. As I read it, I couldn’t help reflecting on how much darker it is compared to the previous parts. In a way that is. more satisfying I would say that Dekker’s grasp of the Biblical narrative is amazing, what really threw me though was his shifting between Biblical allegory and more direct Biblical examples. In this book, Dekker reveals in some scenes that were not really allegory with the inclusion of vampirism and telepathic powers.
In conclusion, this series has incredibly impacted my life and it did in all aspects both spiritually and physically. My faith in God increased and opened my eyes to deeper aspects of spirituality. I am not disappointed with this series, in fact I highly recommend it if you're looking for a game changer and I can promise you that you would be happy if you read the book.
I will be rating this series 4.5 stars and I highly recommend this series to young adults, mystery lovers and for fantasy lovers.
Book cover images from Goodreads
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