Customer Reviews

Sinner: A Paradise Novel (The Books of History Chronicles)

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I finished reading SINNER after a day-long sit-down and read. And now I really don't know what to make of the book. Yes, this was definitely a Dekker book, there is no doubt about that stylistically. I think I just expected a lot more from someone like Ted Dekker. And especially from a Paradise Novel.

I know this review will probably generate a lot of "non-helpful" votes, but before you say that it wasn't helpful just because you love Dekker, give me a moment to explain my feelings on SINNER.

First off, I have read this plot in other books. The LEFT BEHIND books has a similar idea (religious freedom being banned), as well as THE MIND SIEGE PROJECT and a couple of different Frank Peretti novels deal with similar subjects (PIERCING THE DARKNESS and NIGHTMARE ACADEMY for example). So I guess some of the plot just seemed like old news and ideas. Even with what Dekker decides to do with the characters ended up feeling rote.

Second, I didn't feel the danger as much. Normally, in a Dekker book, I am on the edge of my seat just gasping out loud because I don't know what on earth is going to happen or if the characters will even make it out alive. There is always such a sense of danger -- and I love that. In SINNER though, there were a few really great initial scenes that had me just not able to wait for what happened next. But then I got to the middle, and things just starting fizzling out. And by the last third of the book, I saw the ending coming miles ahead of time. I kept pushing on through the book, hoping and praying that Dekker would give me that great twist that he always does near the end, and when I got there, I just thought, "That's it?"

I think a third thing that kind of brought down my enjoyment was the characters. Billy and Darcy are along for the read the majority of the book, and they aren't likeable. They aren't supposed to be in the plot, but I don't like it when I don't like the characters. And they just didn't endear themselves to me. Not even Johnny seemed that exciting this time around. He felt like a cardboard cut-out being shoved around for story's sake. And the new character, Kat, just made me ask, "Why?"

And lastly, this is the preachiest Dekker book ever. One thing that I have always enjoyed about his books is the fact that the message isn't always right on the surface. You have to dig a little to see it, and when you do, it's always amazing. But this time around, the message was right in my face -- no doubt about what he wanted to get across. And that left me a little annoyed. I know Dekker is better than having to make his characters dump the entire idea in dialogue to me, because he's done it before with BLACK, RED, & WHITE.

One thing I will say however, that I wasn't ever bored reading SINNER. And on one level, I did enjoy reading it. A new Dekker book, a day to read it, it's just not my favorite -- by a long shot. There are definitely some great scenes along the way for sure, just like any Dekker book, but on a whole, it just all felt a little flat to me. Here's to praying that maybe Dekker will slow down his output just a bit so that he can take a little more time on his books.

Once again Dekker's work is hyped up to his maximum potential. We all know what he is capable of. Those of us who have read his best, know that when at his best, Dekker can't be matched! Not in a million years. Before you even get to the title part, Dekker has a "Dear Friends" page. And Ted Dekker dares us to possibly compare this by giving us "Old and new all at once." In other words, while this is totally "Circle," you may find it ringing a familiar tune with "Heaven's Wager" or "Blessed Child" coming to mind. Well, not in my mind. And this really isn't what I consider Dekker's best either! I consider this to be Dekker's tease. And ladies and gentlemen, I HATE BEING TEASED!! But I'm also a committen fan of Ted Dekker, and he isn't yet so bad that he's out of his element.

Ted Dekker did his best bringing us Darcy, Billy and Johnny. I believe that. Darcy and Billy are determined to get people to listen to what they have to say. And they have ways of making you listen. And you also have Johnny, simply a natural leader, who's been there, done that, and isn't fazed so easily, not even by something that reaks of Black! Oh yeah, you have Marsuvees Black, and he's as evil as his name. Plans are the name of this game, and something will go through. Leaders will be followed, and there will be a price to pay.

And it sounds pretty exciting, doesn't it? The problem is that Dekker doesn't make it exciting. This was pretty easy for me to put down, and when I read Ted Dekker, that's a first! I've never felt the urge to just put down a Dekker book to go do something else. Reading this, there was always something else to do!

My wife and I are always in competition when a Dekker book comes in the mail. Simply put, one of us gets to read it first, while the other waits in agony for that last page to turn. With my wife, that last page never did turn, and she was disappointed. Another person told me that he finished it only in hopes that it would get better. That doesn't sound like the Dekker I've been reading all these years. But it gives me hope when I hear rumors like that start to form. It means that hopefully we've still got the best of Ted Dekker to come about in the future!! Hey, I know, because I've read his best. And I can't WAIT for those to get on my bookshelf.

But as for the usual, when fans might say, "The latest is the greatest!!" Nope. I'm not saying that this time. I'm saying that SINNER is a TEASER, and I can't stand to be teased!! Don't do it again, Ted. I'm waiting for more of your best. The best of the best!!

The United States citizens lose their right to freedom of speech. What does this mean for the followers of Christ? The premise of the story in "Sinner" is almost upon us. We see it everyday in the news. What will you do about it? Take a stand for Christ or back down to the governments new law? Dekker tackles the subject head-on in this conclusion to the Paradise novels. The message is not to be missed and it'll cause you to evaluate your life and see who you really serve.

As for the story itself, I hate to say, I had to force myself to finish the book. Too many government meetings, too much talking and too much dislike for the two main characters. Things did start to pick up after page 300 and the book finished with a great ending but it was hard getting there. However, the "surprises" at the end were not surprises at all unless you weren't paying attention to what you were reading. They were very obvious. I've read everything Ted has ever written and I'm not convinced he actually wrote this book. It just didn't seem like his writing style and format.

I highly recommend this book for it's powerful message. On the other hand I can't recommend it due to the long-winded story. As always, the choice is yours.

1 Star = Pathetic
2 Stars = Fair
3 Stars = Good
4 Stars = Excellent
5 Stars = Life changing

I think I've just read my last Ted Dekker novel for a while.

I got interested in Dekker's stuff after reading House, his co-written effort with Peretti. I became an immediate fan and got a lot of enjoyment out of the Circle Trilogy, Obsessed, Blink, Thr3e and Showdown. Since reading Skin and Saint I started becoming disappointed with Dekker's stuff. It seemed like his stories would start really well then ultimately end poorly. Sinner is another example of this except that the first chapter or two is of the only interest and the rest goes downhill from there.

Contrary to what is written in the introduction to this book, there really is no point reading Sinner unless you have read Showdown and Saint in that order. But even if you have you will find this story dull. The course of events that take place in the storyline seem ridiculous to me. At one point we have Billy and Darcy being pursued by evil dudes to destroy them because of their supernatural powers which have suddenly manifested. The next we know, they've used those powers to help enact a federal law that effectively limits religious freedom, and Johnny thinks the best way to protest the law is to hole up in Paradise with 3000 others. Really it's all a bit implausible, even for supernatural fiction.

The storyline just doesn't flow at all, the four main characters are developed poorly, and not much really happens. Parts of the story made me wonder whether Ted Dekker actually wrote it all. Two thirds of the way through it was a real struggle for me to be bothered continuing.

My fear is that Ted Dekker has become pre-occupied with cranking out as many books as possible in the same hyper-marketing vein as the Left Behind series: endless sequels that don't finish and in which not much really happens.

For those who rate this as a 5 star book, all I can say is they mustn't read much fiction, or perhaps are only reading "Christian fiction". Even so, there's much better Christian fiction available than this.

First I should start off by saying that I'm a pretty big Ted Dekker fan. I've been buying and reading his books for about the past 3 years now and just like most older fans, must say that I find his older faith-based, adventure-driven and emotional/relational/romantic material more inspired than his newer who-done-it fantastical supernatural material. Still, Dekker has kept up the exact same writing style throughout the years, and it's such a fantastic unique way with words and descriptions that never gets ahead of itself or tries to sound overly wordy or philosophical for its own sake... and I think it's what's kept him famous thus far, and what is also helping his fan base to grow.
'Sinner' is a story based on the older 'Showdown,' and is also the last book in the Paradise Novel Series (though they say the 3 can be read in any order, which I disagree with), 'Showdown' being the first and 'Saint' being sort of a distance 2nd book that has no real alignment with this book's timeline.
The characters from 'Showdown' are back as grown ups who work in the real world and have inherited supernatural powers (Billy can read minds, Darcy can influence people to do pretty much anything with the power of her voice and Johnney can have people see the true Kingdom of Heaven through one look of his blinded eyes). Yea, if this all sounds far-fetched so far, you haven't heard anything yet.
The story takes place in the near future, around 2035, where the United States is basically at a sort of religious and cultural civil war where extremism in religion has reached a boiling point, Christians are looked down upon and no longer respected and mostly tolerated, and Islam has become the religion of choice in America. Without going into much detail the story is basically about Billy and Darcy being hired by the U.S. government to use their powers to influence people in the States out of all this racial and religious tension, as well as eventually influencing foreign nations to agree with the U.S. on pretty much whatever the heck it wants. Eventually they decide to enact an Amendment that prohibits religious expression and Johnney being the only devout Christian of the 3 decides to take this head on with his own small army of 3, which eventually becomes 3000 in the small town of Paradise (the town focused on in the first book 'Showdown') to fight the bill and keep religious expression alive for the sake of Christianity.

Now the reason I gave this book only 3 stars is because of how much it tries to cover so many subjects at one time, and eventually using so much time to describe all the problems and tensions going on in America that Dekker must sacrifice character development in the process. Marsuvees Black (the villian from the first book, again, 'Showdown') is back but only makes brief appearances as he isn't necessarily a vital part of the story. In fact, the problem is that NOTHING is really a vital part of a story that seems to be using so many unrelated things to tell one central story, that the reader simply just stops really caring about trying to guess what will happen or feeling tense or thrilled about anything and is basically just forced to sit back and accept everything that's going on - thus leaving the reader out of any sort of relation they might have with the book. So what keeps this story afloat? Mostly Ted Dekker's writing, he's a good writer, a very good one, and the reader (most especially his fans) will keep pages turning to see when things will finally start to click together and make sense.
Still, things never really do make sense as the story has a tendency to become pretty far-fetched and downright supernaturally hokey (an example being when Johnney pits himself with both Billy and Darcy in what seems to be a power-struggle STARING contest... the reader can only role their eyes at such moments. Or when a teenage rebel named Kat is at school and tries to stop a mob of extremist teenage Muslims from throwing things in the cafeteria shouting 'may the will of Allah be done!' and begins yelling how Jesus taught we are all to love each other, and said teenagers and school are never mentioned again... the reader just feels like they're getting put through filler material).
Anyway, this all leads to a very cheesy and anticlimactic ending in which the battle of good and evil is ended for the moment, and at the last 2 chapters the reader already pretty much knows what's going to happen and is personally tired of all the supernatural far-fetched and forced Hocus Pocus that I would not be surprised if you just skimmed through he last 20 pages just to have the book done with. That is of course to the readers who haven't already grown impatient by the middle of the book. It almost made me laugh listening to characters continuously repeat "kill him! kill him already!" only to have the villain laugh and smile repeating the predictable "you can't kill me" type lines. Yes, this type of dialogue actually goes on for an ENTIRE CHAPTER by the end of the book. More impatient and picky readers would probably palm their faces saying 'Ted, just end it already, this is embarrassing.'
And just to add another tidbit - the "villain," Marsuvees Black I believe was excellent in the first book, 'Showdown,' and had a lot of depth and character, but in this one just comes off as NOTHING like his earlier self, and just another stereotypical bad guy who laughs and talks too much, but doesn't ever really do anything bad to anyone at all. You don't hate him or are afraid of him, you just wonder when he'll die already.

Ted Dekker fans will most likely be disappointed by how ridiculous this book becomes at times, and though some aspects of the story become interesting (particularly Kat's character which to much dismay was pitifully WASTED, and Darcy's and Billy's exchanges with each other earlier in the book before the last quarter where everyone just seems to keep yelling all the time), but for the sake of a whole, what kills this book is both the poor pacing, disjointed scenarios, uneven storytelling, and huge sacrifice in any sort of meaningful and in-depth character development. You simply don't care very much about these people or relate to ANY of them in the least bit. Ted is a great writer and while this book wasn't terrible, it was merely OK, but in comparison with his earlier works, this just doesn't hold a candle. He needs to get back to the magic that made his earlier, more romantic books so special (Thr3e, Blessed Child, When Heaven Weeps, Showdown, Circle Trilogy) and take a break from these stretches in trying to write overly dramatic supernatural thrillers.

Dekker concludes his Paradise series with his focus on Billy and Darcy, who are pulled into an odd group of political figures who hatch a scheme to make religious professions illegal. The pacing was a bit up and down, but ultimately this was not an enjoyable read. I liked it more than Saint, but that's not saying much since I gave that two starts. Dekker provided this series as a compliment to the Circle series, but truth be told, I wish he would not have. Billy flip-flops more than John Kerry imitating a fish out of the water because he's hell bent on purging religion, then he embraces it to defeat Marsuvees Black, only to eventually become the anti-Christ in Green. The climactic build up to the end felt rushed as a teenager is murdered while three characters from Showdown escape a bombing of Paradise, even though they can hear the engines of the planes carrying the bombs. Darcy's passion for obliterating religion was so over the top that it was hard to believe she was as emphatic as the book portrayed. Illogical decisions and dialog plague this book. As a Dekker and Circle series fan, the Paradise novels were a tremendous disappointment. They do not compliment the series at all.

`Sinner' is a Ted Dekker novel set within a non-sequential series called `The Books of History Chronicles.' It is the third and final of the `Paradise Novels', a trilogy within the series. `Sinner' takes place 13 years after the first book, and a few years after the second, bringing back the familiar characters of Billy, Darcy, and Johnny. Each is a survivor of a well intentioned though misguided (and I would say theologically unnecessary) experiment on 36 children, testing whether or not individuals completely secluded from the influences of the world and exposed only to truth, beauty, and goodness could essentially say "no" to the forbidden fruit of our existence.

Once again, I want to emphasize that these books are best read sequentially, despite the author's claim that any order is as good as another.

I wanted to like this book, especially in light of the very important reality that the author exposes here; that under the banner of "tolerance", we are in danger in the U.S. of losing our religious freedoms. It is as if to say, "...and in the end there remains faith, hope, and love--and the greatest of these is tolerance..." It seems that the "tolerance police" want us to be open to all beliefs and persuasions EXCEPT those that might be considered conservative, traditional, and/or Christian. Dekker does a great job in showing how the expansion of the definition of "hate speech" eventually covers the life-changing message of the Gospel. Christ taught not `tolerance', but Love, and for some reason we chose to nail Love to a cross. Love and Truth are inseparable, and that comes through loud and clear in this story.

That being said, I would have to say this is the weakest of the six Dekker books I have read--at least in its writing style. When one writes a screenplay, he/she has the benefit of cinematography (the scenery, camera angles & movement, lighting, etc.), acting/directing, and especially background music to establish the tone and emotional "feel" of the scene. A novel writer, however, has to set the atmosphere and mood on his/her own; I don't feel that the time was taken to do that here, which made many of the scenarios and character actions feel more than a bit contrived.

As well, the great Christian metaphors and analogies that I think have been Dekker's forte were either missing or so spelled out that they lost their power--a power which often derives from their subtlety (a good metaphor is stealthy in its ability to get under one's mental defenses before revealing itself ). The Christian `teaching' in this book also stepped over the line into "preaching," with the overtness of the character dialogue. As a Christian myself, I didn't have a problem with this because I wholeheartedly agree with the message, but I say this as an observation that I am sure non-believers (there certainly must be a segment of them among Dekker's followers) would probably find this difficult.

One final observation which I think I would describe more as concerning than anything else, was the several allusions to the "Roman Catholic Church" that were made. For a time, I thought the author was resorting to the "cheap-controversy-to-sell-books" way of Dan Brown (i.e. the Catholic Church is conspiratorial and anyone who it sees as a danger it will "eliminate"). The characters espousing a negative take on the Catholic Church turn out to be unsavory themselves, but the thought never really gets played out in the book.

So overall, I certainly enjoyed the series, and feel it is a worthwhile saga. I just wonder with Dekker becoming such a prolific writer, and with the speed which these popular books are being churned out, that perhaps some of his craftsmanship is not being given sufficient time and thought to fully develop each novel.

Other books that Ted Dekker fans may enjoy:
THE COSMIC TRILOGY: Out of the Silent Planet; Perelandra; That Hideous Strength (From C.S. Lewis, the master of Christian allegory within fantasy and sci-fi genre's)
Father Elijah: An Apocalypse (O'Brien's 'Children of the Last Days' series deals with many of the same end times and political issues as Dekker)
Dominion I: Seed (A 7 book Christian supernatural/apocalyptic thriller series)

The Paradise Series isn't as good as the Circle Series, but it's well worth the read.

This is still a Dekker book, so it's decent, but either my faith is changing, or his writing style is becoming less abstract and more direct about Christianity. In the Circle Trilogy, what I loved most was that the reader had to make the connections between his story and Christianity. With this book, Dekker draws all the connections for you, and it becomes cliche, and sorry to say, a little bit frustrating.

This continues the Paradise stories(Showdown, Saint) that Dekker has released and also relates to the Book of Histories referenced in a number of his books. This brings back the characters of Darcy, Billy, and Johnny and finds them with powers that causes them to do different things. Billy and Darcy use their powers to ban the freedom of speech in the U.S. WHile Johnny goes back to Paradise to use his power to make a stand against the blatant attack to suppress religious beliefs. A great story with a lot of action. Again I'm not sure how Ted Dekker keeps all the stories and thought going combining and relating stories & characters in numerous books.