The Circle Trilogy

Last month I read Black: The Birth of Evil, a graphic novel by Ted Dekker. Well, I finished the series and here is my follow up with the next two.

Red: The Heroic Rescue

Sticking with what I said about Black, I wasn't thrilled with this one.

While it has an intreguing premise, it just doesn't translate well to the graphic novel format.

This one starts off simultaniously years after the events in the last one and only moments later. Let that mess with your mind. And while you get glimpses of what filled those 15 years in one world, mostly you are just expected to live with the gap. Because the story must move on.

Also, while the Christian God/Elyon correlation was there in the first one, it goes above and beyond in this one with Elyon sacrificing himself, demanding the followers "drown" in his blood (baptism), and then offering a salvation. If the Christ story is not your thing, you'll want to avoid this series.

And yet I was still interested to know how Dekker was going to make ends meet. So on to the next one.

White: The Great Pursuit

Reading this one led me to believe that with each installment, this story got just a little harder to read. The gaps between them in terms of years going by in one reality, coupled with all the story Dekker tried to cram into just three short books, became just too much. And with this last one, my suspension of disbelief was stretched too thin, making it hard for me not to roll my eyes and think "well of course things fell into line for this guy."

With each new event, particularly in this book, things just got harder and harder to "roll with." Of course so-n-so was someone conveniently placed in a position of influence in both worlds. Of course Thomas magically convinced the bad guy to help his cause. Of course everything was just a little too convenient and easy to fix. I was expecting more from Dekker and I just don't think graphic novels are his medium.

All that being said, I still find the concept mildly intriguing and perhaps in the future I will still pick up the novels, read the story in a format that gives Dekker more room to move and tell his story, and hopefully the result will be better.

Until then I can only willingly encourage hardcore Dekker fans to pick up these graphic novels. Sorry. They just weren't my thing.