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Ted Dekker is another of my favourite authors. His books have challenged and broadened my beliefs and ideas about such things as the purpose/power of prayer, healing, faith, the war between good and evil, and the seriousness of the symbolism of baptism. He is a Christian, and he writes from a Christian worldview, but his novels are earning recognition in the secular market as well. His books have made the New York Times Bestseller’s list, Barnes and Noble “Pick of the Week”, and “Best selling thriller” on Amazon, as well as the Straits Times Best Sellers List, the Singapore equivalent of the New York Times.

With 31 published books to his credit, publishers are still at a loss to describe Dekker’s style or to label his books with a genre. He writes psychological thrillers, spiritual thrillers, fantasy thrillers, and horror thrillers, with plenty of international intrigue, adventure, and just a touch of romance. His characters include serial killers, spies, orphans, monks, psychopaths, people with psychic abilities, supernatural powers, and people with every kind of mental health disorders imaginable, along with a few unforgettable characters that don’t actually exist in our world.

Dekker’s ability to create incredible fantasy worlds began in his childhood. His parents were missionaries who lived among the head-hunter tribes of Indonesia. He describes his early life living in an unfamiliar culture, with his parents often away from their children for extended periods of time, as both fascinating and lonely.  

Ted Dekker is best known for his Circle Series: Black, Red, and White. A prequel to the Circle trilogy, Green, is scheduled for release in September 2009. I have pre-ordered Green from Amazon.com. My sixteen year old daughter and I will be in competition to see who gets to read it first. Personally, I think that the person who paid for the book gets priority reading privileges.

In the Circle trilogy, Dekker explores the theme of original sin and Paradise Lost. Have you ever wondered what you would have done in the place of Adam or Eve? Would you have been able to resist that forbidden fruit and prevented the banishment from Paradise?  The ingeniously twisted mind of Ted Dekker has created a restored planet Earth, where evil is confined to a deep, dark forest and humans live an idyllic existence of intimate communion with a loving, playful God who does things like dividing the planet into two half spheres just for fun.

Enter Thomas Hunter; somehow snatched from his world on the streets of modern day Denver – “beamed out” just in the nick of time from a hail of bullets fired by well-trained collection agents whose employer seems to expect Tom to repay the $100,000 he “borrowed” from the mob.

Thomas finds himself waking up in the opposite world every time he falls asleep and dreams. After a few of these round trip journeys, he is unable to tell which world is real and which one is the dream (if indeed one of them is a dream).                    

As the populations of both worlds begin their rapid descent toward total annihilation, Thomas is reluctantly thrust into the role of a hero. “Our” world is being threatened with biological weapons in the hands of terrorists bent on having the planet to themselves, while the idyllic new world is threatened by evil characters trying to entice some innocent citizen from the pastoral village to come over and drink the forbidden water in the dark forest.

Will Tom be able to save both worlds? What forces are behind this unnatural transport between the worlds? How can he bring knowledge gained in one world over to save the other? Readers, be warned that you will likely become obsessed with discovering the answers to these questions. My apologies to your family, who won’t be getting any of your attention until you finish all three novels. Happy reading!  And this is just the Circle series.

Alongside the Circle series, Dekker has created “The Lost Books” series written for the youth market (I bought them for my daughter, and then read them all myself – I found them fascinating). There are six books in this series. They contain most of the same characters as the original series, and they take place in the same fantasy world created for the Circle, but the story centers around the adolescent characters – who are sent on a series of quests to prove their character.

And if that were not enough, Dekker has created a series of graphic novels (I think that means a glorified comic book) that contain the original stories of the Circle series.

“Blessed Child” and its sequel “A Man Called Blessed” were co-written with Bill Bright. Mr. Bright passed away in 2003. He was best known as the founder of Campus Crusade for Christ. These two novels blend Raiders of the Lost Ark style adventure with international intrigue with a touch of romance and a search for simple faith.

The Paradise Books series: “Showdown”, “Saint”, and “Sinner” – I can only describe these books as a bizarre twist on the confrontations of good and evil.

“The Martyr’s Song” is best read with a box of tissues and a blood pressure monitor close at hand. It explores human behaviour on the most primal level; twisted, unfettered evil; and the purest of uncompromising good.

“Heaven’s Wager”, “When Heaven weeps”, and “Thunder of Heaven” are novels that stand alone (not part of a series). These are the most overtly “Christian” of Dekker’s novels. Each is “an imaginative window into a world more real and vital than most people ever discover here on earth, the unseen world where the real dramas of the universe-and of our daily lives-continually unfold.” (From teddekker.com)

Dekker’s most recent works are stand alone (not part of a series) books with incredible story lines. They are full of the ingenious plot twists, fascinating characters, and confrontations between good and the forces of evil that we have come to expect from Ted Dekker, but with even more adrenaline, adventure, and deeper mysteries. “Blink”, “Thr3e”, “Obsessed”, “Blink of an Eye”, “Adam”, “Kiss”, “House” (co-authored with Frank Peretti), and “Skin”  are all novels that you won’t be able to put down. And while you are reading, be alert for cameo appearances from characters, settings, and events from Dekker’s other novels.

For those who prefer nonfiction, I recommend Dekker’s “The Slumber of Christianity” and “The Promise.”

About five or six more novels are in the process of being written, edited, and published.

And in his spare time, Ted Dekker has an awesome website (teddekker.com) that my daughter is always on. It is very interactive, with contests, downloads, and forums – and of course Dekker’s blog. Oh – and he is on facebook, too!

Dekker has recently launched a digital interactive environment called “The Underground”. This project is a Flash-based “room” within his website that enables readers to step in the world of his novels, complete will illustrations and sound design.  In the future, he plans to develop exclusive, web only stories that will debut in The Underground.

Did I mention that Ted Dekker is one of my favourite authors? I hope that I have inspired a few of you to “Join the Circle.”