Customer Reviews

Showdown [With Headphones] (Playaway Adult Fiction)

5 star:		(46)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Into the small town of Paradise, Colorado comes a stranger clothed in black. Calling himself Marsuvees Black, the man claims to be there to bring hope and love. But strange things are happening while Marsuvees in there. People are seeing things, acting different: as if everyone's attitude in the formerly quiet town has shifted toward anger, hatred, and paranoia.. Johnny Drake, a boy in the town, knows that something is terribly wrong, but doesn't know how to stop it.

At a hidden monastery near Paradise, a secret school for children is disrupted as a young student named Billy explores the forbidden tunnels underneath. He has found a dangerous secret there, and through Billy, a number of the other students have also been lured down into the tunnels. While Billy doesn't truly understand what he discovered, he will change the lives of a whole town and begin an almost unimaginable series of events.. It will be a showdown between good and evil- as only Ted Dekker can write it.

One thing when reading a book by Ted Dekker is that you can never expect exactly what you'll read. He has a habit of making the unthinkable seem plausible, along with giving a totally new perspective As usual, I devoured this newest book in one evening, barely able to sleep after I'd finished. The book was great! Finally understanding the connection between Billy, the Blank Books, and what happened to Thomas Hunter in the Black Forest (from The Circle Trilogy) was an added bonus. Showdown is a must-read for everyone who has loved Ted Dekker's books.

This is my first experience with Ted Dekkar after hearing rave reviews for his other books from friends and family. I was a little leery because many Christian fiction authors do not write that well (with the exception of Peretti). I figured I would try Dekker's latest attempt to get my feed wet. Well I was not disappointed. Dekkar is a very good writer, above average for the suspense/thriller genre in general, and knows how to weave an interesting and thought provoking yarn.

This story started out with some very strange things happening. There were also two separate seemingly unrelated story lines proceeding at once. But about half way through the book things seem to come together and make a little more scene in the context of the far out premise. Dekkar also develops a number of interesting characters who play a key role in the story. But what got me was, late in the book it became evident that the story was a subtle, and at times not so subtle, allegory. Some folks might have realized it earlier than me, but it made me go back and examine what I had already read and realize what a fine job Dekkar did in this respect. This fact made me enjoy the book even more. Note that I am being vague so not to spoil anything for others who want to read this book.

This story is classic good vs evil, and I would say it would be more along the lines Dean Koonz or Stephen King than your typical Christian novel. Note that there are some disturbing and graphic scenes. There is also a good message here, yet I did not feel it was to heavy handed. The interesting yet strange premise along with good character development and the presents of the allegory make this a very enjoyable read.

Ted Dekker is a total "hit or miss" with me. I began my foray into his work with Thr3e and literally could not finish the book. But, assured by a friend I trusted, I gave him another shot and picked up Black. I was not disappointed. The day I finished Black, I got Red and the day I finished Red, I began White. I absolutely loved The Circle Trilogy, so you can imagine my eagerness when I discovered Showdown, which is roughly a continuation of the Trilogy, centering around the mysterious Books of History which bring written words into real life.

Showdown begins with promise, builds weakly, and putters to a pathetic end. Is there any action in Showdown? Plenty, I suppose. Actually, Showdown is a fairly gory and violent story. I would not recommend it to anyone under the age of maybe 15. If it were to be made into a movie as written, it would be rated "R", "PG-13" at the least.

The story is about a tiny, isolated town in Colorado. It literally has one grocery store, one church, one beauty shop, and once had a movie theater. The town of Paradise (such an awfully cliche' name, all things considered) has a population of about 400, but we only really get the feeling that it's populated by about twenty. The remaining population are only briefly referenced a few times, which skews the feel of the story, in my opinion.

The opening scene is pretty good, actually. Johnny Drake, a boy of about fourteen, is sitting with his old (very old) friend Cecil as a stranger decked out in what can only be described as a gunslinger's getup from a Clint Eastwood spaghetti western, strides into town on foot. Marsuvees Black is an outlaw prophet come to Paradise to bring the sleeping residents a message of "grace and hope" and to shake things up a little.

In the first few pages, Black murders 80 year old Cecil by scaring him into a heart attack and Johnny Drake is the only witness. From this point forward, young Johnny is the only person in Paradise who is able to resist the charms and deceptions Black brings to the town.

Beginning at the Episcopal church that night, Black calls a town meeting where he wows the people with a sleight-of-hand show that really gets everyone's attention. Who doesn't like to be entertained at church, after all? He openly challenges the pastor, Father Stanley Yordon, who leaves almost immediately the following day for a conference with the Bishop in Denver and does not return for several days. I was fully expecting Stanley to return and do something of consequence, but in all fairness to the story, he was absolutely useless as a character except that Dekker needed a church and a church needs a pastor. Well, and there's the affair with Johnny's mother, Sally. And their child. I won't spoil that should anyone reading this actually decide to read Showdown. Still, it really didn't add to the story.

After getting to very briefly (and shallowly) know the characters in Paradise, we move to a mysterious monastery where a group of orphans are attending a special school. In reality, they are the unknowing participants in a spiritual experiment organized by the headmaster, David Abraham (yes, just like Abraham in the Bible). It turns out that Marsuvees Black is one of the monks "teaching" the 37 or so students at the school. The students are taught primarily through writing. Everything centers around writing and for good reason: the mysterious blank Books of History we first hear about in The Circle Trilogy have appeared here. If you were perplexed by Dekker's ending in White, you will now solve the mystery of who Billy is. Billy is a thirteen or fourteen year old "orphaned" student at the seminary who is an exceptional thinker and writer. In fact, his only real challenger is Samuel Abraham, the son of the headmaster.

We learn that there are forbidden tunnels under the monastery and that Billy has been tempted by Black to enter them where he discovers the blank Books of History. (The Books of History have he ability to create history based on whatever is written in them, so long as the writer has "the faith of a child", which, given the age of the children, was a bit unconvincing to me. Whoever has seen a preteen who was filled with nothing more than angst and sarcasm?) Billy also discovers the giant worms (which are never really explained) that live in the tunnels and excrete a hallucinogenic sludge that seems to help blind him to the evil lurking about. In time, Billy begins to coerce his friends to visit the forbidden tunnels, which finally leads to a "debate" (one of the many "showdowns" of the book and just about the weakest "debate" I've ever read), resulting in a drastic change in the way the monastery operates. A majority of the students follow Billy down into the dungeons and are conscripted into helping him write his story. A story about an evil prophet who visits a sleepy little town called Paradise, Colorado...

I won't belabor on with more details, except to point out that the story is just incredibly weak. The characters are extremely shallow and the circumstances are just too unbelievable, even as a supernatural fantasy/thriller. Dekker does a poor job creating characters you care about, which is surprising because he did such a good job of that very thing in The Circle Trilogy. Several characters are brutalized, some are murdered, and I found I just didn't care. I felt I was just reading words on a page (actually at the half way point of the book, I was seriously wondering whether I would even bother finishing it. It did get better after that point, but only just.) One big problem I had was how unusually remote the town was. It just didn't make sense when the phones went out and the power failed that SOMEBODY didn't notice. Don't these folks have families? If you live in a remote area, aren't there like REGULAR deliveries or some sort of near DAILY contact made? What about law enforcement? Heck, what about the MAIL?!

The central message of Showdown is actually very good and full of meaning to Christians. "Grace and Hope without Love is powerless." In the end, sacrificial love is what saves the day. But his way of telling the story--of illustrating the power of love--had no power. Young Samuel's selfless act in the end meant absolutely nothing because he had nothing invested and therefore, nothing risked; no real reason to give his life to save the people of Paradise (or his "dear friend" Johnny), and without that very important connection, it had virtually no meaning for me and therefore no power. Words on a page.

I felt I had been beat over the head with allegory instead of told a fascinating tale about characters I cared about and those wonderful blank books. I didn't even hate the villains! How can you not at least hate the villains?! Lack of good character development really hampered the story. Dekker does a passable job with dialog, although he has the fourteen year olds sounding like eight year olds at times, and like proper Victorian ladies at other times. Who winks anymore? If I see a fourteen year old kid winking at another kid, I'm calling the cops. I also found his use of everyday language in the narration to be annoying. It almost read like a fourteen year old had written it. Hmmm...

The biggest problem I had with the story is the way the extreme conflicts were resolved. Far too trite and fatalistic, in my opinion. There's just no tension without risk, and NO risk where fate is concerned. Well, they were "fantastic" in a sense and would look cool on a movie screen (anybody see a pattern here?), but they just didn't make much sense. Dekker seems to draw out the story with a few "key" revelations that don't make sense, either. Yes, the revelations themselves made sense, I guess, but why his characters kept them hidden until "everyone was ready" did not. It became clear that he needed to push the plot and stretch the story. Big mistake, in my opinion. It subtracted credibility from his characters and from him as an author.

As I said, I absolutely LOVED The Circle Trilogy (Black, Red, and White), but I wouldn't recommend anyone waste their time reading Showdown. On a scale of one to five, I rate it a solid two. (Hey, at least I finished it! I couldn't finish Thr3e!) It's obvious Ted Dekker is a good writer from The Circle Trilogy. Why he didn't put those same skills to use in Showdown is the biggest mystery of all.

I was lucky enough to get my hands on an advanced readers copy of this novel and I must say... What a treat! This blows away any single book I've read in many a year. The plot is frightening in parts, very atmospheric through out, and kept me on the edge of my seat from beginning to end. But like all of Dekker's novels, Showdown is oh so redemptive.

The story is about small town that is ravaged by evil in the most suprising ways, but not nearly as suprising as the source behind that evil and the price it ultimately extracts from the town. I can't say more without ruining the twists the follow.

This is definately a notch up for Dekker -- a big, mind blowing story that could very well be a water shed for the genre. Guarenteed to make you pace the carpet and lose sleep.

And thats why so many christians choose not to look at it.

This book was a push to get through. But I knew I had to get through it, because I knew the charactoristics of Dekker would fall in line.

I liked this book, because it was a smack in the face with the reality of sin. Too many authors are afraid to offend their readers by presenting raw truth... Dekker defied this fear, and more of us should follow suit.

This book had me squirming at many points, but the end is completely worth it. Please just hold on till you get there.
It is the power of sacrifice that covers a multitude of sins.

I am a big fan of Ted Dekker. I have read many of his novels and have enjoyed them all immensely ... until this one.

Although this has good sections, for the most part it is disjointed, contains lots of nonsensical scenes, and has lots of gratuitous violence. The story itself starts off ok, drags a lot in the middle, picks up a bit, and then is is a bit anticlimactic at the end.

It has some tie ins to 'The Circle' trilogy that will not be picked up on easily by those who have not read that already.

I generally give Mr. Dekker's books very high marks, but this is one that you might want to get at a used bookstore if at all.

I have been a Ted Dekker fan for a few years now. I have always enjoyed his books, but this one takes it to a whole new level.

"Showdown" is one of the most amazing books I have ever read in my life. It is full of interesting charecters, and an awesome story as well.

I think that in order to have a really good story, you need to have a really good villain. Believe me when I say this book has that in Marsuvees Black. I use to think that the best villain in any book was Randall Flagg from Stephen King's "The Stand" But Marsuvees Black has taken over that place for me. He has a lot more depth to him, and he fascinates me to no end.

This book is darker and more violent in spots than your average Christian book, but it is not there just for the sake of being there. Everything in this book has a purpose. This book is not an average book in anyway shape or form, this one exeeds any book I have ever read!!

I would recommend this book to everyone!!

I really enjoyed Showdown; the way Dekker told the story was gripping-- I almost hit the ceiling when I realized the connection from Showdown to the Circle Trilogy!

Another reason I liked it so much is that it connects to the Circle Trilogy, but it is still able to be a stand-alone book. I was fascinated by the events in Paradise, and could not help wondering where Dekker was going with it all.

When I found out, I grinned. (I'm not gonna spoil it for anyone reading.) Excellent points, Mr. Dekker, and I cannot wait for more.

First off, I should tell you that some fans of Dekker's Circle Trilogy may be dissapointed. This novel isn't as weird as the Circle Trilogy is (weird in a good way) but it is related to the trilogy; the books of history are a mayjor part of the plot. This book is better for people with good imaginations (there are dungeons that aren't described incredible well) but is very enjoyable. A very unique and interesting idea (kids secluded in a monastery from birth and sheilded from evil). Dekker has written better books in his time (e.g. Saint, Circle Trilogy, Thr3e) but it is definetly worth the read. It's an important peice of the puzzle in the 10-book Books of History super series (Black, White, Red, Showdown, Saint, soon to be released Choosen, Infidel, Renegade, Chaos, and Sinner). Dive deep.

I finished reading this months ago - sorry for the delayed reaction.

How do I write a review of a book whose author I rave about on a constant basis? How is anyone to believe this novel is spectacular when I say it about everything he writes? You'll just have to take my word for it. Or the plethora of other reviewers who know a hit when they read one.

Talk about right up my alley. No 7-10 split here. This baby is a strike. Period. Good and evil take their places in a battle for the small town of Paradise, Colorado. It's just a normal town, or so it seems on the surface. But when self-proclaimed "preacher" Marsuvees Black appears in his trenchcoat and boots, life will never be the same for these unsuspecting townspeople.

The monastery on the mountain overlooking Paradise, where a group of orphans participate in an experiment examining the effects of faith on natural laws, holds its own secrets. Will they find the power of love or something else?

Revealing any more plot content may ruin the story, and I dare not stand guilty of that. If I could accurately compare this to any other work, I would. But I can't. All I can say is that Dekker never fails to weave an extremely redemptive tale while stupefying the reader with his shocking picture of humanity. This novel provokes thought, entertains, and enlightens all at the same time. I'll wager you'll agree.