Black: The Birth of Evil

Ted Dekker

The Circle #1

Summary:

Enter an adrenaline-laced epic where dreams and reality collide.

Fleeing his assailants through deserted alleyways, Thomas Hunter narrowly escapes to the roof of a building. Then a silent bullet from the night clips his head...and his world goes black.

From the blackness comes an amazing reality of another world-a world where evil is contained. A world where Thomas Hunter is in love with a beautiful woman. Then he remembers the dream of the chase as he reaches to touch the blood on his head.

Where does the dream end and reality begin? Every time he falls asleep in one world, he awakes in the other-both facing catastrophic disaster. Thomas is being pushed beyond his limits...even beyond the limits of space and time.

Black is an incredible story of evil and rescue, betrayal and love, pursuit and death, and a terrorist's threat unlike anything the human race has ever known.

Some say the world hangs in the balance of every choice we make. Now the fate of two worlds hangs in the balance of one man's choice.

In One Word: Woah!

Plot:

Okay, so what do you get when you cross Narnia, with some crime thriller about a terrorist attack? You get this book, and it’s fascinating. I really liked this story, although it did drag on a bit in the middle. The whole idea of two completely different worlds linked by one man is extremely interesting. Then add some weird bat things and trees that glow, and a very scary virus and you’re set. Overall I felt like this was an extremely original idea, but the writing was not as good as I would’ve hoped. That might improve as the series progresses, though, we shall see. I do think the story was more than just interesting, though, Dekker is a genius at allegories.

Characters:

This is where the book disappointed me a little. The story was very unique and interesting, but it felt a little like the characters weren’t as important to the author. Which is very weird for a Dekker book, since he usually focuses primarily on the characters, not the story. The characters were all a little flat and at times even a little silly. I do, however, hope for improvement for the other three books.

Who should read this:

12+, there is quite a bit of violence, but it’s never extremely graphic or disturbing. If you like Narnia, then you might enjoy this, since one half of it had a very similar feel to it in my opinion. If you don’t like books that have Christian undertones, or want a light, happy read, don’t read this.

My rating:

This book wasn’t perfect, but I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I loved the ideas and concepts. 4/5

Quote:

“How can there be love without a true choice? Would you suggest that man be stripped of the capacity to love?”