It's the end...No, the beginning...It's a Circle

Green by Ted Dekker
Hardcover, 432 pages
Published September 2009 by Thomas Nelson
ISBN13: 9781595542885
Read January 2011

I was reading another Dekker book, Skin, when a reference on Goodreads.com caught my eye listing it as pat of the Books of History Chronicles. I clicked the link to see what other novels were part of it. Surprised to see The Circle Trilogy listed there, but even more shocked to see that another book at been made part of the trilogy (making is quadrology?). After this revelation I scurried around to locate a copy for myself - a library in south Georgia was able to send it my library. I had to wait about a week for it (but the huge snowstorm may have impeded its delivery).


I couldn't wait to start it and was slightly confused when it was listed as the prequel to the series. An introductory note from Ted Dekker helped to clear it up. Just as no circle has no beginning or ending, neither does this series. You can start with Green or Black. If any of my readers should read Green as the starting point of the series I would love to hear what you thought without have all the story in your head. I was constantly trying to piece together how it could be the end and beginning. 


The opening chapters and the description of The Gathering to celebrate The Great Romance immediately reminded me of what I loved about this series. Once again I was pulled into wanting to stay in Thomas's desert world and not flip back to the other world. But again these to worlds collided and each had a part to play in the story.


When I first read this series I had not read C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia. Ok, so I still haven't read it, but I did see the movies (Prince Caspian in Dawn Treader is totally swoon worthy). Anyways, I could see definite similarities in the works. Of all the Dekker books I have read, the Circle series is by far of the most heavily Christian themed - though at the center of all his books is a battle of good and evil, and to some extent a message of redemption. 


Have you read Green? Did you read it first or last? I highly recommend this series to readers that enjoy a good thriller novel. The writing is wonderful. Dekker is masterful at the written word - some of his Facebook statuses have given me chills in their profoundness. I must warn you if you are considering embarking on this journey: A circle has no beginning nor an end, but is just a continuum.