Ted Dekker and Frank Peretti - Together

Frank Peretti introduced the genre. Christian fiction as Stephen King would write it. Peretti is incredible when he's on, but his overall output has been uneven. I'm still a huge fan because of what he represents and his contributions as a speaker, short story writer and childrens' book author.

Enter Ted Dekker who is not uneven. Everything he writes keeps me glued to the pages, and commonly up all night for the final 100. Now they team up for House. And as you might have guessed, the main creature that has to be dealt with in this thriller is the House. And for those who have lived in a house with a basement, the real ride begins when the door slams behind them in the basement.

You can't review this work without the key line. The rules of the house and the deranged killer who controls the house are: "One game. Seven players. Three rules. Game ends at dawn."

This book gets major points for inventiveness. I have read all of Stephen King and read the entire originals of Dracula and Frankenstein before I was 17. It is hard to find new ways to keep folks up at night, but "House" should do the deed.

SHOWDOWN by Ted Dekker

Have you started reading Dekker yet? What's keeping you. This guy writes really well. His concepts are unique. There are good underlying messages. You should start with any of his books and just keep going. Now comes SHOWDOWN.

This has to be the weirdest book yet from Ted Dekker. You see there's this monestary hidden in the cliffs somewhere in the desert. There are two levels, and the lower levels are filled with tunnels occupied by these . . . OK! As Stephen King say: the hardest part of writing science fiction is opening the door. I'll keep the door closed and let Dekker open it for you.

Meanwhile there's this wild and crazy guy named Marsuvees Black who seems to have one foot on each floor, and yet another footprint in the town of Paradise. How he manages to be three places at once provides a good part of the tension in this work. Good and evil collide in the minds and hearts of the good people of Paradise and the some orphans who populate the monestary. By now you should be going: "Huh!" That is commonly the thing you say to yourself in all of Dekker's products, but certainly in Showdown.

Ted Dekker Interview with "Hollywood Jesus"

Mike Furches: Where do you come up with your stories?

Ted Dekker: I’ll tell you what, my writing is definitely what is called cross genera, much like Dean Koontz, or even Stephen King. Those are probably the two closest writers, Dean Koontz comes the closest to me in the ABA world, American Book Sellers Association as opposed to CBA, Christian Book Sellers Association. My voice is the same in all of my stories. My stories are about a great confrontation between good and evil within a number of different genera’s. You’re always going to get a story, but all stories. Like in When Heaven Weeps, you could almost classify it as almost like a romance, it is a love story in one sense but it’s really a thriller. So there all thrillers but that’s kind of where the genera thing ends. My stories come from my passion to discover, and explore this struggle that we all have. That we all find ourselves engaging between good and evil and I write essentially modern day parables where I take the struggles and I put them on the canvas in big, bright, bold, colors. Those colors can be life and in really sensational ways it accentuates the struggle that we have in an ideal way. In those ideals with both the good and I characterize them in terms of ideally. For example in Blessed Child, there is the story of a noble savage, well there is no such a thing. You can’t find a Caleb, he doesn’t exist. But in the context of the story, he comes to life and we can examine good as it really could be. In the same way Jesus taught, he said; “If your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out.” Well he didn’t actually want us to walk around plucking out our eyes. He is talking in ideal terms. He is using hyperbole to make a point and he used parables in the same way. That’s essentially what I am doing, I am characterizing good and evil in a very, a extreme way as I can do it without offending people or to drive away readers. So, my stories are born out of that desire and all of my stories will deal in one way or another with that common theme. What does good and evil really look like? Not the way where Stephen King casts it where there is no redemptive message in the end at all, there’s no redemption. Where good doesn’t conquer evil. I’ll take someone through the valley, and I am going to bring them up to the mountain top and have them look back and be able to say, “Yea, though I walk through that valley of evil, and death, I will fear no evil.” That’s kind of my mission in writing. Here I am rambling again, I’m rambling. So you’ll have to edit. You’ll edit this down, right?

The Hollywood Jesus site didn't edit it down, so we won't either. For the rest of the interview, go to here

A Wild Ride Into One Man's Obsession

OBSESSED by Ted Dekker

Sometimes writers get better as they write more, sometimes they slip into a stock formula and just fill in the blanks. Robert Ludlum for example. Others try to move outside of their strength only to struggle like John Grisham. But while Dekker sticks with adventure, he avoids any formula, and his writing and dramatic flair keep improving.

This work takes us to the horrors of Nazi Germany and the death camps. I have always had a fascination for this time in history, having grown up in the 50’s in a 98% Jewish community. It was all very fresh at that time, and many of my friends had lost relatives in the camps. It seems timely for Dekker to bring this time to mind again as we see the rise in anti-semitism in Europe and even among the American elites in the Colleges.

However, a warning. This book is not for the squeamish. It deals with devilish rituals that are hard to take. I would definitely not suggest this for anyone under 18 . . . maybe even 25. As always, there are several aspects of this work that will touch every life, and there is never a doubt that a sold-out Christian is at the helm of this ship.

Finally, I wouldn’t start here with Dekker. Start with Blessed Child. Work up to this one.

Everything I Can Find On Ted Dekker

The goal of this blog is to provide a one stop source on Ted Dekker. Over the next weeks I will post all of my previous reviews and new ones here. I will gather other reviews and sources of reviews for all his books. I will attempt to get links to interviews, including plans for future books, movies, etc. And I will begin an effort to compile a biography.

Stay tuned if you like this writer and what he stands for.