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Sinner: A Paradise Novel (The Books of History Chronicles)
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$ 21.24
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| Retail Value |
$ 24.99 |
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$ 3.75 (15%) |
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| Item Number |
90162 |
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Item Description...
Product Description
Some say roll with the punches. Drift with the tide. Nothing can stop the inevitability of change. There was a time when 300 Spartans disagreed with such mindless thinking and stood in the gap. Now it's time for 3,000 to stand in the gap. Sinner is the story of Marsuvees Black, a force of raw evil who speaks with wicked persuasion that is far more destrictive than swords or guns. Beware all who stand in his way. It's also the story of Billy Rediger and Darcy Lange, two unsuspecting survivors of a research project gone bad, who discover that they are perhaps the two most powerful souls in the land. Listen to them or pay a terrible price. And it's the story of Johnny Drake, the one who comes out of the desert and leads the 3,000. Follow him and die. Sinner tells the story of a free land where people who worship as they please and say what they believe are suddenly silenced in the name of tolerance.
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Item Specifications...
Pages 400
Dimensions: Length: 9.3" Width: 6.2" Height: 1.6"
Weight: 1.435 lbs.
Release Date Sep 2, 2008
Publisher Nelson Word / Nelson Books
ISBN 1595540083
EAN 9781595540089
UPC 020049130070
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Availability 0 units. |
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Reviews - What do our customers think?
 | What a terrible book Oct 13, 2009 |
This is the first book, and the last, I have read by this author. The plot is thin
and juvenile, maybe that is the target audience. If you want to read a book that
can inspire you to find God, then Dan Brown's new book Lost Symbol is at times
downright inspirational. | | |  | Maybe be 4 Stars if this wasn't Ted Dekker Oct 11, 2009 |
First I should start off by saying that I'm a pretty big Ted Dekker fan. I've been buying and reading his books for about the past 3 years now and just like most older fans, must say that I find his older faith-based, adventure-driven and emotional/relational/romantic material more inspired than his newer who-done-it fantastical supernatural material. Still, Dekker has kept up the exact same writing style throughout the years, and it's such a fantastic unique way with words and descriptions that never gets ahead of itself or tries to sound overly wordy or philosophical for its own sake... and I think it's what's kept him famous thus far, and what is also helping his fan base to grow.
'Sinner' is a story based on the older 'Showdown,' and is also the last book in the Paradise Novel Series (though they say the 3 can be read in any order, which I disagree with), 'Showdown' being the first and 'Saint' being sort of a distance 2nd book that has no real alignment with this book's timeline.
The characters from 'Showdown' are back as grown ups who work in the real world and have inherited supernatural powers (Billy can read minds, Darcy can influence people to do pretty much anything with the power of her voice and Johnney can have people see the true Kingdom of Heaven through one look of his blinded eyes). Yea, if this all sounds far-fetched so far, you haven't heard anything yet.
The story takes place in the near future, around 2035, where the United States is basically at a sort of religious and cultural civil war where extremism in religion has reached a boiling point, Christians are looked down upon and no longer respected and mostly tolerated, and Islam has become the religion of choice in America. Without going into much detail the story is basically about Billy and Darcy being hired by the U.S. government to use their powers to influence people in the States out of all this racial and religious tension, as well as eventually influencing foreign nations to agree with the U.S. on pretty much whatever the heck it wants. Eventually they decide to enact an Amendment that prohibits religious expression and Johnney being the only devout Christian of the 3 decides to take this head on with his own small army of 3, which eventually becomes 3000 in the small town of Paradise (the town focused on in the first book 'Showdown') to fight the bill and keep religious expression alive for the sake of Christianity.
Now the reason I gave this book only 3 stars is because of how much it tries to cover so many subjects at one time, and eventually using so much time to describe all the problems and tensions going on in America that Dekker must sacrifice character development in the process. Marsuvees Black (the villian from the first book, again, 'Showdown') is back but only makes brief appearances as he isn't necessarily a vital part of the story. In fact, the problem is that NOTHING is really a vital part of a story that seems to be using so many unrelated things to tell one central story, that the reader simply just stops really caring about trying to guess what will happen or feeling tense or thrilled about anything and is basically just forced to sit back and accept everything that's going on - thus leaving the reader out of any sort of relation they might have with the book. So what keeps this story afloat? Mostly Ted Dekker's writing, he's a good writer, a very good one, and the reader (most especially his fans) will keep pages turning to see when things will finally start to click together and make sense.
Still, things never really do make sense as the story has a tendency to become pretty far-fetched and downright supernaturally hokey (an example being when Johnney pits himself with both Billy and Darcy in what seems to be a power-struggle STARING contest... the reader can only role their eyes at such moments. Or when a teenage rebel named Kat is at school and tries to stop a mob of extremist teenage Muslims from throwing things in the cafeteria shouting 'may the will of Allah be done!' and begins yelling how Jesus taught we are all to love each other, and said teenagers and school are never mentioned again... the reader just feels like they're getting put through filler material).
Anyway, this all leads to a very cheesy and anticlimactic ending in which the battle of good and evil is ended for the moment, and at the last 2 chapters the reader already pretty much knows what's going to happen and is personally tired of all the supernatural far-fetched and forced Hocus Pocus that I would not be surprised if you just skimmed through he last 20 pages just to have the book done with. That is of course to the readers who haven't already grown impatient by the middle of the book. It almost made me laugh listening to characters continuously repeat "kill him! kill him already!" only to have the villain laugh and smile repeating the predictable "you can't kill me" type lines. Yes, this type of dialogue actually goes on for an ENTIRE CHAPTER by the end of the book. More impatient and picky readers would probably palm their faces saying 'Ted, just end it already, this is embarrassing.'
And just to add another tidbit - the "villain," Marsuvees Black I believe was excellent in the first book, 'Showdown,' and had a lot of depth and character, but in this one just comes off as NOTHING like his earlier self, and just another stereotypical bad guy who laughs and talks too much, but doesn't ever really do anything bad to anyone at all. You don't hate him or are afraid of him, you just wonder when he'll die already.
Ted Dekker fans will most likely be disappointed by how ridiculous this book becomes at times, and though some aspects of the story become interesting (particularly Kat's character which to much dismay was pitifully WASTED, and Darcy's and Billy's exchanges with each other earlier in the book before the last quarter where everyone just seems to keep yelling all the time), but for the sake of a whole, what kills this book is both the poor pacing, disjointed scenarios, uneven storytelling, and huge sacrifice in any sort of meaningful and in-depth character development. You simply don't care very much about these people or relate to ANY of them in the least bit. Ted is a great writer and while this book wasn't terrible, it was merely OK, but in comparison with his earlier works, this just doesn't hold a candle. He needs to get back to the magic that made his earlier, more romantic books so special (Thr3e, Blessed Child, When Heaven Weeps, Showdown, Circle Trilogy) and take a break from these stretches in trying to write overly dramatic supernatural thrillers. | | | | hopefully this isn't a sign of the way things will be Aug 14, 2009 |
| This is still a Dekker book, so it's decent, but either my faith is changing, or his writing style is becoming less abstract and more direct about Christianity. In the Circle Trilogy, what I loved most was that the reader had to make the connections between his story and Christianity. With this book, Dekker draws all the connections for you, and it becomes cliche, and sorry to say, a little bit frustrating. | | |  | A Great Ending to the Paradise Novels Jul 9, 2009 |
In my opinion, this book is very good. For those who say that Dekker has written better, perhaps he has. I've only read the Circle and Paradise trilogies, but I found Sinner to be an amazing conclusion to the Paradise novels.
Most of the subtlety of the first two books is lost here, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. The preachiness that people have complained about is needed for Sinner's type of story line. Showdown and Saint set Johnny up to take a stand for Jesus, not for some unknown good force. There's no mincing words with that.
I also think that Dekker does a wonderful job of explaining the perils of the end times. While he may have gone slightly overboard on the issue, he clearly describes how dangerous settling for tolerance is. And the last page really shows how these events relate to those we'll see in the last days. | | | | Enjoyable Jul 1, 2009 |
The book was in good condition and very enjoyable. I enjoy Ted Dekker's books
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