Customer Reviews

The Martyr's Song (The Martyr's Song Series, Book 1) (With CD)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

"The Martyr's Song" is basically a reprint of the first part of Dekker's masterful novel, "When Heaven Weeps". While the story is compelling (a priest is martyred in a small Bosnian village), I'm not sure what the purpose of reprinting it this way could be. While there is a new bookend story featuring Eve from WHW, I can't say it warranted an entire novella. There's not a lot added to the core story itself, and WHW did a much better job of resolving everything with the last half of the book. Readers choosing this one over the other might be robbed of the emotional impact found at the conclusion of the original. If you've read "When Heaven Weeps", you really aren't going to miss much by skipping this one. If you haven't read WHW, I'd suggest going for that one instead of this one. It IS a longer read, but it's worth the investment of time for it.

I haven't read any of Ted Dekker's 'Martyr's Song' series previously. I definitely will do so now though.

This is a story that is set in two different time periods. Part of it is set in Bosnia during WWII and part of it is 20 years later relating the events of the earlier period to a young girl who is struggling with being tormented by high school peers.

The Bosnia part is a portrayal of Christian martyrdom that is both painful and beautiful. The 1960s part is both of those as well and contains some powerful truths that the girl can relate to her life to help her understand what is really important and enduring.

I think this book would be a great gift for any young girl who is struggling with the issues mentioned above. I also think it is a good read in general. For me, it was kind of a teaser. It whetted my appetite to read the other books in this series. I recommend it.

This story brought out tears of sadness followed by tears of joy! This book literally changed my view of death as something that can be entirely beautiful.

A word of warning: don't listen to the accompanying CD in public for the first time. I listened to it at work, and I couldn't keep my shoulders from shaking nor conceal how it touched me as I reflected back on the story.

As an avid Ted Dekker reader, this book gets my highest recommendation as a gift for most readers. If you are familiar with his novels, you know that he is not a formulaic author. Some of his styles may have greater appeal to different audiences. As such, here are my gift recommendations by audience:

For readers that like thrillers with shocking twists: Thr3e
For adult secular fiction readers, who you want to introduce to Christian fiction they will actually read & enjoy: Thr3e or Obsessed
For anyone aged 14+, that will actually read a book with a cross on the cover: The Martyr's Song
For anyone that doesn't like to read: The Martyr's Song - It's a short, easy read that will hook them fast.
For anyone that isn't feeling beautiful: The Martyr's Song
Anyone dealing with their own death or the death of a loved one: The Martyr's Song
For anyone hurting, suffering, ill, depressed, or otherwise needing encouragement: The Martyr's Song
For readers of Science Fiction or that like a story to take them to a whole new world, with tremendous character depth: The Circle Trilogy (Black, Red & White).
For readers of horror: House or Showdown
For avid Christian readers - to rekindle their heart: The Blessed series (Blessed Child, & A Man Called Blessed) or the Martyr's Song series.
For Christians that aren't big on reading - to rekindle their hearts: The Martyr's Song
For watchers of the television show 24: Thr3e, or Showdown
For Frank Peretti Readers: House, Showdown, Blessed Child, or any of Ted's books
For Dean Koontz readers: Thr3e or Obsessed
For anyone that has read any of Ted's novels, and hasn't yet read the Martyr's Song: The Martyr's Song
For anyone that has ready any of Ted's novels, but hasn't yet read the Circle Trilogy: The Circle Trilogy (Black, Red or White)
For children 3 - 11+ (Hey, I even enjoyed it!): The Promise
For the Romantics out there: Blink, The Circle Trilogy or The Blessed Series

Great book! Not for the weak of heart. Ted Dekker does a masterful job of using the art of storytelling to communicate some of the greatest truths about love, reality, and eternity. Attaching the CD with "The Martyr's Song" was a great idea; it was very creative and really enhanced the impact of the story. On a side note: I noticed that some other reviewers gave this book low marks because it was a shorter version of a story told in another book. Disappointing as that may be, their ratings only reflect their own disappointment--not the quality of the book.

Having read some of the other reviews before writing this one, I can say that because I haven't read the first book, I have no reference other than Martyr's Song regarding this story/series. To me, it felt like a replay of a true story from Jesus Freaks or Fox's book of Martyrs, only with much more detail. Dekker does an excellent job of sucking you into the story, though I think he could have just used the Bosnia story by itself and accomplished even more (drop the outer story and go for the meat.) At any rate, this story made me address some questions about how far I would go if needed, and I felt inspired to reach for a new level in my faith. In that respect this story held real value, and for that, I'm thankful. It's definitely not the same old...same old...But, in my opinion, it was a bit too short. I would have liked to have read more about the torturers' responses to the priest's death and how it changed them, especially the writer of the novel Eve had read, rather than just hearing it from her. But that's just me.

Well, the conclusion of "The Martyr's Song" is a breezy one indeed, and some might say has sadly come to an end. But do not fret, for you can sing Nadia and Father Michael's song day after day just by being an example. Plus you get a cool CD featuring Todd Agnew, who sings "The Martyr's Song". Let me tell you this, it is beautiful! When my own daughter at nearly 19 months old attempted to sing this, WOW, it does have an impact.

Take a journey with Marci. Enter a flower shop. Be drawn in with a story. Allow yourself to listen to the laughter, allow yourself to embrace the heartache, along with the triumph that follows! Watch something that has been beautiful since day one, discover for herself that she is indeed beautiful!

Ted Dekker created a masterpiece with 3 books, and now a 4th novella has emerged. This is what made Ted Dekker who he is, and nobody can debate that.

We as Christians can continue this story so graciously as Ivena did with young Marci, and simply pass the story on, and share it with others. Don't just keep it on the shelf as a decoration for others to see, it's too beautiful! So, in saying that, let the song live on in your life. Thank you, Ted Dekker, for the song that started it all!

Do you ever feel left out? Rejected by the `beautiful' people? Made to feel inadequate?

In the opening chapter of The Martyr's Song, we meet Marci, a girl who knows first-hand what it means to feel rejected. With lowered eyes, she forces herself forward, through the crowd and toward the school building and her locker. The new skirt she had saved up for months to buy no longer gave her the courage she had hoped for. Instead she is met with taunting comments.

"Nice skirt."

"You wearing that dress tonight?"

Nothing they could say could embarrass her any further. Of the entire eleventh grade, she was the only one not invited to tonight's party.

"Please, she isn't even going. And if she showed up in that, we'd have to lock her in the bathroom to keep the boys from throwing up."

They skip away, leaving behind painful wounds and an empty school.

As she stands in the vacant school hallway, a woman approaches. "Come to my flower shop tomorrow, and I will make you beautiful," the woman promises.

Marci is stung by the woman's words, angered that even this stranger has the nerve to call her `ugly'. The next day Marci does go to the flower shop, not to let the woman `make her beautiful' but to tell the woman exactly what she thinks of her, and her offer.

But when Marci arrives at the shop, she discovers that the woman, Eve, wasn't talking about physical beauty, or even inner beauty.

Eve tells Marci that true beauty will come to her only when she embraces a long-forgotten story. Eve then tells Marci the story of Father Michael and thirteen-year-old Nadia, a child considered ugly with her coarse looks, blotchy freckles, and left leg two inches shorter than her right.

And so begins Dekker's story within a story, a retelling of a tale contained in the opening pages of Ted Dekker's When Heaven Weeps, the second title of his earlier Martyr's Song series.

The story is set in war torn Bosnia, in the 1940s. A group of soldiers, lead by Commander Karadzic, comes across a small village, untouched by the combat that surrounds it. Karadzic is intent on restoring Serbia, purging anyone he doesn't consider a good Serb, especially Franciscans who approved the murder of hundreds of thousands of Serbs by Yugoslavia's Ustashe army.

Unable to understand why this church remains standing when all the others within a hundred kilometres have been burned to the ground, Karadzic becomes convinced it is a Franciscan church, protected by the Ustashe. When he finds Father Michael and the remaining villagers in the church courtyard celebrating Nadia's birthday, he decides to put the villagers' faith to the test, with deadly results.

As Karadzic's inhuman game unfolds, readers glimpse life beyond the present through the eyes of Father Michael. The skin of this world peels away to reveal the world that awaits; a world full of laughter and a song that caresses the soul. A world where Nadia is beautiful.

By the time Eve finishes the story, Marci knows a secret that will change her life forever. She learns that in the eyes of heaven we are all beautiful, even her.

The Martyr's Song, poignant in its first telling within When Heaven Weeps, is even more so in this novella which includes a CD of a song performed by Todd Agnew and co-written by Agnew and Dekker exclusively for this book. A list of discussion questions at the back of the book draws readers deeper into the book's theme. Dekker invites us to search our souls and discover if we are in true anticipation of heaven, or simply enamored with our temporal life on earth.

This book struck my heart in a powerful way. Like Marci, I struggled with feelings of insignificance, and fought to fit in when considered the `outsider'. Unlike Marci, I didn't have an Eve in my life to teach me what every child in this situation needs to learn.

I believe this book is a must read for any teenager who struggles with issues of self-worth, or who faces peer pressure to conform to today's standards. Once more Dekker reaches out through story to expand our imagination and teach a timeless message. Once more I have been changed as a result.

Featured by World Vision during its 30 Hour Famine campaign, THE MARTYR'S SONG is set to reach the youth of today with a powerful message to love all that cross our path.

The setting: Atlanta, Georgia. The year: 1964. An elderly woman approaches a typical, non-descript high school on a seemingly non-consequential errand. Oblivious to the students standing around the school, and with a will of its own reckoning, Eve's thoughts turn to a scene in Bosnia many years earlier. She has recounted these ominous words so many times that they've become part of her body and soul. Its recollection is a scene of impending disaster, terror even, yet Eve is compelled to relive its memory time and again. Shaken to the present by someone's shout, Eve is drawn back to the moment as she remembers the reason for her presence in this schoolyard: the delivery of a dozen rare roses. And still, there's more here --- a deeper, more beckoning call. Eve spots her, and the likeness is uncanny. It can't be...and yet it is. Who is that girl and what is her story?

Marci, a high school junior, stands rooted to the spot, paralyzed by fear. If she moves, she loses. If she stands still, she loses. It doesn't matter what Marci does. She's a loser, and the whole school knows it, confirming it with every callous, cutting remark. Yet no one can remain inert forever, and so Marci summons what meager resource of courage she has and enters the school. The taunting is merciless and the humiliation now complete.

With her roses Eve approaches Marci, and to the already emotionally damaged girl speaks the words aloud that Marci has been replaying her entire life: "You hate yourself because you don't think you're beautiful, is that it?" In the next moment, Eve offers an invitation of a lifetime: "Come to my flower shop tomorrow, and I will make you beautiful." How could she? Marci ranted, anger now swelling. How could this stranger be so cruel? And yet, the next morning, there she stands at the old woman's flower shop. And after a short attempt at spewing vindictives, Marci accepts Eve's invitation to be transformed and made beautiful.

Eve opens the door to her home. The gauntlet is laid down, and the real story now begins. Eve tells Marci to listen carefully and discover which of the tale's characters she is. Marci is in the story --- there's no doubt --- but she must pay close attention to discern the truth of it and the mystery it holds. Eve's mental recitation from the day before is the same as the opening words to the book she now shares with Marci. This is the story of five ruthless, desperate soldiers, and a small town filled with women, children, and their beloved priest.

On this particular day, 13-year-old Nadia was celebrating her birthday with those who made up her corner of the world. Father Michael --- he with his hunched back, tender in his concern for Nadia, with her plain looks and disfigured leg (due to polio) --- was the first to notice the soldiers' approach. His spirit clenched and he prayed, "Dear Father, protect us." It wasn't long before mercy deserted the scene and the soldiers followed the orders of their crazed inhumane leader to carry out unspeakable acts of cruelty. Nadia's secret wish was that these soldiers would not ruin her birthday party; little did she know how eternity would enter the formerly picturesque scene.

Eve continues to turn pages while speaking and remembering. Marci listens, then understands and believes. The truth is haunting and the song piercing. It is true. Eve has accomplished the unimaginable --- Marci is now beautiful. It's a miracle. Still, both Eve and Marci have paid dearly for the change. Lives have been sacrificed and torn asunder. Yet there is a promise to be embraced, shared, and bestowed. It is enough, and really more than enough.

--- Reviewed by Michele Howe

_The Martyr's Song_ is pure and simple, Ted Dekker at his best. The story is riveting and moving. It's a novella, so you can read the whole book in one sitting, but its punch far outweighs its length. Get it, read it, be moved by it. Dekker writes with passion and the reader can feel it. By the way, the Todd Agnew song on the CD it comes with is great, too. You'll listen to it over and over again.

The Martyr's Song is the last of four in a series. Each one stands on its own but the last, The Martyr's Song, is where the first ones began.

Ted Dekker applies the command in Luke 9:23-27 to unimaginable circumstances in a Bosnian village at the end WWII--the physical act of taking up a cross to save the ones you love.

The book shifts time frames between the devilish acts of a Serbian commander and his soldiers who've stumbled on to a village of believers and 1960's America where an elderly woman shares a story so transforming it has the power to physically change ugly to beautiful.

There's no doubt who the commander follows, as he declares "Christ was a fool. Now he's a dead fool," and taunts the villagers to call on Him to save them. There's also no doubt who the villagers serve as they glimpse the promised world beyond this one.

I can't remember the last time my faith was so impacted by a work of fiction! The Martyr's Song casts a shadow as long as Christ's on the cross, with hope in portions only God can provide.

Contained in a plastic envelope at the back of the book is a CD of the song, The Martyr's Song performed by Todd Agnew as well as an interview with the author.

Armchair Interviews says: In addition to this being a very impacting read, the author has also provided a study guide appropriate for spurring discussion in bible study or secular reading groups or for your own personal reflection.