Dave Enjoys » thriller

Review: The Awakened (Book 1).

davemackey — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 04:22:02 +0000

Cover via Amazon

Introduction

I don’t read a lot of fiction…well, let me rephrase that…I read a lot of fiction but not when compared to the amount of non-fiction. I’m always looking for a good fiction read to relax with – and share with my wonderful wife (Charity). When it comes to fiction I’m fairly picky. While I read widely in my childhood and teen years when it came to fiction I’ve since significantly refined my tastes.

Unfortunately, I find it fairly difficult to find good fiction books, so when I find one I want to share it. It is my humble opinion that every individual should seek to maintain a supply of recreational materials (e.g. books, movies, other venues) which they can utilize whenever the need arises. Recently I found another work (and author) to add to my list.

The Awakened is the freshman endeavor by Jason Tesar and is a three-part trilogy. I have only finished the first book (and am currently blazing through the second) – but I’ve read enough to know that I love it!

Synopsis

I prefer not to know much about the storyline from the books I am about to read. For those who are like me here are a few key themes that may peak your interest: ancient, nephilim, angels, mythology, parallel worlds (maybe?), action, intrigue, ethics. For those who are interested in a real synopsis, here is the description from Jason Tesar’s page:

“THE HISTORY: Over five thousand years ago, a renegade faction of angels abandoned the spiritual realm and began their inhabitation of earth. Worshiped as gods for their wisdom and power, they corrupted the realm of the physical and forever altered the course of history.
THE PROPHECY: Amidst the chaos of a dying world, a lone voice foretold the awakening of a warrior who would bring an end to this evil perpetrated against all of creation. But with the cataclysmic destruction of earth and rebirth of humanity, the prophecy went unfulfilled and eventually faded from the memory of our kind—until now!
THE AWAKENED: The physical dimension is fractured. What remain now are numerous fragmented worlds moving simultaneously through time, sharing a common history, connected only by a guarded portal. On a parallel earth, in the city of Bastul, Colonel Adair Lorus disappears while investigating the death of an informant, triggering a series of events which will tear his family apart and set in motion the resolution of an ancient struggle.
Kael, sentenced to death after rising up against the cruel leadership of his new step-father, is rescued from prison and trained in the arts of war by a mystical order of clerics. Excelling in every aspect of his training, Kael inwardly struggles to give himself fully to the methods of his new family, or the god they worship.
Maeryn, bitter over the disappearance of her husband and supposed execution of her son, fears for her life at the hands of her newly appointed husband. Finding comfort and purpose in her unborn child, she determines to undermine his authority by reaching out to an underground social movement known as the Resistance.
After being forced from his home, Kael’s former mentor, Saba, uncovers a clue to Adair’s disappearance. Sensing a connection to his own forgotten past, Saba begins an investigation which leads to the discovery of a secret military organization operating within the Orudan Empire.
In book one of his debut series, Jason Tesar delves into the heart of an ancient legend, embarking on an epic saga that will journey from earth’s mythological past to its post-apocalyptic future, blending the genres of fantasy, sci-fi, and military/political suspense.”

Review

Jason Tesar has a great future as an author – if his works continue to maintain the quality and innovation of The Awakened. The novels offer consistently quality wordmanship, a compelling storyline, intriguing mysteries, and a sweet balance of story progression and parallel threads^[1]

Tesar’s work is likely to appeal to a wide variety of readers. His works should attract fans of C.S. Lewis‘ Chronicles of Narnia and Space Trilogy. They may also attract fans of J.R.R. Tolkien, though the works are not in the strict fantasy realm, being much more along the lines of Lewis’ Space Trilogy. More contemporaneously, I would recommend Tesar’s works to fans of Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child, Michael Crichton, James Rollins, Frank Peretti, Ted Dekker, and Tosca Lee.

If you like cerebral, action-packed page-turners – Tesar’s work should immediately hit the top of your reading list. I’m really excited at the quantity of work Tesar is turning out and optimistic that he will continue to deliver the quality of work he has demonstrated thus far.

Ohh, and did I mention the books are available for $2.99 for the Amazon Kindle and even better the first book is free!?!

Book Review: “Awakening Dreams (Grace Awakening Book One)” (thecheapreader.wordpress.com)
Book Review: “Blood Red Road” by Moira Young (slclteens.wordpress.com)
The Animal World of C.S. Lewis (bipedsandbrutes.wordpress.com)
FORBIDDEN by Ted Dekker and Tosca Lee (W/ Giveaway!) (bookjourney.wordpress.com)
Book Review: Blood Red Road (eulana.com)

^[1] Many authors abuse parallel threads to offer ‘page-turning’ suspense instead of real suspense. The flipping between threads is done to force the reader to turn the pages, in an endeavor to get back to another thread in the story…to get to those threads which advance the story. Tesar uses parallel threads but not to create this forced reading experience, but as a means of advancing the story and maintaining a complex and thrilling plot. ↩

Book: The Bride Collector (Ted Dekker).

davemackey — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 01:00:17 +0000

The Bride Collector by Ted Dekker tells the story of an FBI agent (Brad Raines) who is in rabid pursuit of a serial killer known only as The Bride Collector. In the process Brad forms an unlikely alliance with several patients of a residential mental health facility – who in their own awkward ways assist him in discovering the identity of and stopping The Bride Collector before he can kill more victims.

There are some Ted Dekker books I feel are masterful stories (Adam, Thr3e). There are some which I read but didn’t care for (Skin, House, Showdown, Saint, Sinner). There are those that seem like just another rehashing of already told tales (Boneman’s Daughters). Now it appears I must add a fourth category: the stories that are not masterful in-and-of themselves, that feel partially like a rehashing – but yet distinguish themselves for their message.

Over time Dekker’s books seem to move more mainstream and to remain less and less in the Christian thriller niche. The Bride Collector certainly feels this way, and yet it is with great conviction that Dekker portrays a message of high importance to his readers. What message? That those who are mentally ill are not so different from the rest of us. That the monsters of this world are as likely to be sane and rational as insane and that there is still bountiful humanity and intelligence in those who are maimed in some way in the mind.

I’d encourage anyone who wants a thought provoking and entertaining read about the nature of mental illness, the humanity of its suffers, and the insanity of every man to consider The Bride Collector.

P.S. I read this book on my Amazon Kindle!

The 2011 Christy Award Winners (hopeofglory.typepad.com)
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The Last Hunter (Book 1 of Antarktos Saga)

davemackey — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 02:45:25 +0000

: Image via Wikipedia

The Last Hunter ($2.99 Kindle eBook, also available in print) by Jeremy Robinson is the first in a series of young adult techno-thrillers. Yes, I’m a bit embarrassed to admit it – but I just read a YA book and enjoyed it. Honestly, I had no clue it was YA until just a few moments ago. I did wonder why Robinson chose to cast the protagonist as a young teenager.

Still, while the book is classified as YA it is probably important to note that it is YA in the same way that C.S. Lewis‘ Chronicles of Narnia, Philip Pullman‘s Subtle Knife, or Frank Peretti‘s Cooper Kids are YA. In other words, the topics addressed, the philosophical underpinnings, and sometimes the storyline are not blaise.

I’m not going to even begin to attempt a synopsis of this book – to do so without revealing too much of the thrill of the storyline is almost impossible. Instead, let me just note a few of the topics that are addressed in the novel that really drew in my attention:

Nephilim – I’m always a sucker for these guys. We know so little about them, other than their mention in Genesis and a few other brief passages, but there is plenty of opportunity to build lore around them.
Mythology (especially Norse) – Mythology is always fascinating, and I appreciate Robinson’s endeavors to provide an explanation for the origin of these myths.
Hollow Earth – Okay, its not strictly hollow earth – but it is kind of. You’ll feel some Journey to the Center of the Earth (Jules Vernes) vibes from this one, and perhaps a touch of The Lost World (Arthur Conan Doyle).
Ancient Man – Part of the novel revolves around Antartica as a green continent and the presence of ancient civilizations on the continent.
Large Creatures – I’m also a sucker for large creatures – e.g. prehistoric or modern gigantic marvels (dinosaurs and so on).

Charity really loved the character development and character interactions at the beginning and the end of the book – but was a little disappointed in the middle (when all the action occurred) due to the lack of character development.

Overall, I would give the book 5/5 stars, but for one issue – Robinson describes in excruciating detail several painful scenes – e.g. when someone or something suffers great pain or death. I’m not objecting due to any inability to write but simply because the passages where physically hard to read. One felt the pain of the characters, the disgust, the anguish – and while there is a sense in which one reads to understand, there is also a sense in which we read to relax…and those portions were not relaxing at all!

Boneman’s Daughters (Ted Dekker).

davemackey — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 00:51:06 +0000

Ted Dekker has written some excellent books. Adam is my personal favorite with Thr3e a close second. Unfortunately, a number of his other works fall into a lower realm. Its not that they are awful – its just that when you get something so good (Adam) you come to expect the same quality in each and every book.

I thought I had noticed a pattern in Dekker’s writing. I’d found that his series seemed to fall into the lower category (at least for me) while his individual novels seemed to stand fairly strong. I had hoped that Boneman’s Daughters, a stand-alone novel, would hold this pattern true – especially coming on the heels of Adam. Unfortunately – it doesn’t. Not that its a bad novel – James Rollins gives it accolades, so it has to be decent right?

Boneman’s Daughters is the story of a father (Ryan Evans) whose wife (Celine) and teenage daughter (Bethany) feel abandoned and independent as Ryan has spent years serving in the military away from them. Ryan has a life-changing experience that renews his desire to correct his relationships with his wife and daughter – but is he too late? Given enough time perhaps he can win them back – but there is a killer (“Boneman”) on the loose who steals daughters and breaks their bones horrifically – and he’s about to take Bethany. How will Ryan save her and if he does save her will she even want to be saved? Or is Ryan really Boneman?

A number of interesting questions with potential thrills – but the story fails to grip and hold. The spiritual aspect is at times absent (Dekker’s first “secular” book) but at other times feels heavy-handed. There aren’t the same sort of psychological insights and emotional twists that Adam offers in Boneman. If I had to rate it I’d give it a seven on a ten point scale. Its a decent read if you are bored, but not revolutionary. Read Adam instead.

Fiction: Adam (Ted Dekker).

davemackey — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 23:51:49 +0000

Cover of Adam

Ted Dekker Generally:

The first book I read by Ted Dekker was Thr3e, which I enjoyed thoroughly from start to end. But then it felt like Dekker hit a dry spell. I read House which he had co-authored with Frank Peretti[1. Peretti is probably my favorite fiction writer, especially in the Christian genre. He, however, also disappointed me first with Monster and then with House.] and it disappointed thoroughly. House seemed to lack real story (as most horror does) and focused on an extremely fragmented narrative.[2. By this I mean the book is told in small segments, swapping back and forth between characters, times, places, etc. This is fine when done in moderation (e.g. one chapter about one character, the next about another), but when it becomes pervasive it leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. I consider it an artificial method of creating a driving thriller. Instead of real substance one breaks up the story in a way that feels "fast-paced" but if placed in order would simply feel simplistic and dull.]

After that it was Showdown and Saint (The Paradise Series), both of which I found somewhat boring – probably due to the imaginative storyline which felt just a bit too fantastical for my tastes. I picked up Obsessed but never was obsessed with it and haven’t finished it yet (not sure if I will). I’d heard good things about his Circle Trilogy (Black, Red, and White) but have avoided them out of my distaste for The Paradise Novels.

I stopped by the library recently and picked up two of his latest – Skin and Adam. I read Skin first. I was solidly disappointed yet again. I was tempted to just return Adam without even a second glance. I’m not trying to say Dekker’s books where awful – they weren’t – they were okay, good, average. They just weren’t great and I have a reading list a mile long. I decided to give it a try anyways – a few pages, then put it aside. Dekker grabbed me in the first several pages and wouldn’t let me go. Wow! By the end Charity had joined me and we were reading the story together. We both agreed that it was his most mature work to date. In fact, I would consider it a masterpiece in its genre.

Synopsis:

Daniel Clark works for the FBI and is hunting down a mysterious serial killer known only as “Eve” for taking innocent women and murdering them via a lethal biological injection. Clark has been hard on Eve’s trail for a long time and has lost his marriage over his obsession to catch Eve. Now it seems that Clark is finally getting close, but Eve outsmarts him again – shooting him in the head and killing him. Miraculously, Clark is resuscitated, but not without losing his memory of the killer’s face. The key to capturing this devious criminal is locked in his damaged mind.

Okay, so the storyline isn’t perhaps all that different from any number of other crime thrillers, or for that matter many of Dekker’s other stories – but the execution is flawless. Dekker interweaves the current narrative of the serial killer chase with fictitious newspaper articles written after the case describing the evolution of Alex Price (Eve) from a man into a killer.

There are only so many times one can read a crime thriller. They pretty much have the same narrative structure and storyline – bad guy kills people, bad guy gets caught. Flesh it out and you have your story. So how does one separate oneself from the masses? Dekker does it (and rightly so) by asking deeply philosophical (and theological) questions via his narrative[3. He does this in some of his other novels, but generally I have found the execution flawed with the exception of Thr3e and Adam.], specifically, “What is it that causes an individual to become a serial killer? Is one born as such or bred as such? Can a good man become a bad one?” This questions can be asked in a heavy-handed manner that demands a certain pathway be followed and fails to truly explore the questions and accept the unanswered dimensions, but Dekker succeeds in asking these questions in a way that feels real and authentic.

Conclusion:

If you are looking for a thrilling read, Adam is a great place to look. I have read few books that have grabbed me in such a firm way – and that I look back on with deep thoughts. I think the question of the darkest edges of humanity (e.g. serial killers) fascinates us because we believe at some point that it gives us insight into the whole of humanity. We want to understand how we can aberrate so far – we want to find an answer. Dekker encourages us to search our souls for the right answers.[4. This book is not a pure criminal thriller. If you want to get an idea of the secret twist (which makes the story even more frightening) click here, it'll take you to a book referenced in the novel that is tightly intertwined with the plot - but warning - its a spoiler!]