Scan barcode
A review by swhuber
Green: The Beginning and the End by Ted Dekker
3.0
Ted Dekker's "Green" is listed as book 0 of the Circle series. It can serve as either book 1 or book 4, bringing the entire series full circle and tying up all the loose ends.
The book begins 10 years after White left off, or it begins in a completely unknown world that is just as confusing as the beginning of Black if one does not know the context of the story. The characters have the same depth as they did previously and the intensity of the story builds as much as it did in Black, Red and White. The fall of humanity at the end is described in amazing, vivid detail and many of idiosyncrasies of the world are explained (just in case the the over use of Christian mythology and imagery was lost on any of Dekker's readers).
However, the progression of the book seems forced. The plot is not as organic as it seemed in the other books, and the introduction of BIlly seemed like a superfluous quality used only to find some feeble thread of connection between the first and final book. The use of Janae's character fell flat and the reintroduction of Kara and Monique at the end of the story produced more questions about the state of our world than it answered. Most of all, this book is assuredly a book 4, not a book 0 or a book 1. There is no possible way of treating Green as book 1 in the series. Although the series would proceed chronologically from that point forward, the progressing of the story would seem unfulfilling because the reader already knows how it's going to end.
The book begins 10 years after White left off, or it begins in a completely unknown world that is just as confusing as the beginning of Black if one does not know the context of the story. The characters have the same depth as they did previously and the intensity of the story builds as much as it did in Black, Red and White. The fall of humanity at the end is described in amazing, vivid detail and many of idiosyncrasies of the world are explained (just in case the the over use of Christian mythology and imagery was lost on any of Dekker's readers).
However, the progression of the book seems forced. The plot is not as organic as it seemed in the other books, and the introduction of BIlly seemed like a superfluous quality used only to find some feeble thread of connection between the first and final book. The use of Janae's character fell flat and the reintroduction of Kara and Monique at the end of the story produced more questions about the state of our world than it answered. Most of all, this book is assuredly a book 4, not a book 0 or a book 1. There is no possible way of treating Green as book 1 in the series. Although the series would proceed chronologically from that point forward, the progressing of the story would seem unfulfilling because the reader already knows how it's going to end.