Sunday, February 4, 2007

I don't like Ted Dekker

As the title says, I don't like Ted Dekker. His books, while action packed, are full of poor writing. I just finished reading Black, so I feel the need to complain about it. Although Black is the first book in a series of three, I do not want to continue and read the two others. I never want to read another one of his books again. There are other books that are well written, and have realistic characters that would be much better to read. Hear that, Ted?
Here is a review that I wrote on Black:


BLACK

Ted Dekker

Black by Ted Dekker is a book of unbelievable reality. As the first book in the Circle trilogy, it was published in February of 2004, and it has two sequels that came shortly afterwards in May and September 2004. It is 408 pages of pure action and Dekkerisms.
The weakest part of this book is it's writing style. The series of books was published in less than a year, and it shows. The fact that Dekker does not know how to really write also shows. A lot. He uses many sentences like the previous two; making one sentence into one sentence with a little fragment afterwards. It is used not only in dialogue, but also in the actual writing. Here is an example from Dekker himself: "Deeper and deeper into the jungle they ran. Straight for the lake. There were birds on almost every tree it seemed. Monkeys and possums." Well, monkeys and possums to you too, Ted. Also, on multiple occasions, he starts out a sentence with "and" when, if the period was taken away, and the "a" changed to lowercase, it could be added to the sentence before it to make them a single, real sentence. I honestly do not like Dekker's style of writing. I wonder how he was ever able to get published.
Another weak point was the character development. They are unrealistic, stale, and on occasions, ridiculously funny. When Thomas Hunter, protagonist, is trying to get the people at the Center for Disease Control to believe him that the Raison Strain meant death, he starts acting like a misbehaving child. To quote the book, "Tom smashed his cheek against the glass, tightened his choke hold [on himself], and stuck out his tongue. 'I'm dying! Help, help!'" For putting on that show, Tom gets exactly what he wanted: to talk to someone from the infectious disease department. If he is still doing this as a grown man, he must have had quite the parents. If this had been done in the real world, either the police or some nice men would have taken him away to a special place of his very own.
The story that Dekker has is an unusual one. Thomas Hunter, when awake, is on earth as we know it. When he sleeps, he dreams dreams that are as real as reality. He becomes confused between which is reality, and which is not, all while he tries to save earth from the Raison strain. From a few mistakes on Tom's part, both worlds have something bad happen. On earth, he gives the antagonists the key to making the Raison Strain of death they so desperately wanted, and in Tom's dream world of the bats, he is the one who unintentionally leads one of the inhabitants drink the forbidden water. Both of these were disastrous consequences of Tom's curiosity. Unfortunately, Thomas hunter was a human, not a cat (as the "curiosity killed the cat" phrase goes), so he was able to survive death. Twice.
Thomas Hunter is the protagonist in Black. I've covered him in the above paragraphs. The antagonist was Valborg Svensson. He's pretty much the stereotypical villain. A third character is Rachelle, the beautiful woman that Tom was in love with in his dream world. I don't have much to say about her, either.
Black was a book with an unusual plot, poor writing, and unbelievable characters. I would not read this book again, and neither would I recommend it to anyone, although, if someone that I knew did read it, I would ask the person's opinion of it. If you want to read this book, go ahead, but I just remember that I never told you to do so.

If you have an opinion on Ted Dekker's writing, please leave a comment. I will be more than happy to discuss it with you.

12 comments:

Lori L said...

Don't you think that a person could read Dekker just for pleasure, though? Did you really find Dekker's writing style so obnoxious that it made it impossible to read the book for the story while overlooking the writing style? Do you think all authors need to follow grammatical rules all the time or can they break the rules sometimes?

just me said...

OK you two, I accept you challenge! :-)

Yes, someone could read Dekker's books just for pleasure, although that someone will never be me. I potentially could have overlooked the writing style and read the book just for the story, but I found the characters to be flat and two dimensional. I actually had some hope for this book when I first began to read it, but after Tom's little act in the Center for Disease Control, all that disappeared. I didn't care about the characters at all.
I don't think that writers have to follow all the grammatical rules all of the time. Occasionally not following them can be used to emphasize something, but this should not be overused. Ted Dekker uses it way too much, in my opinion. Why would he want to emphasize "Monkeys and possums" when they have no purpose in his story?

A friend of mine said in an e-mail, "Ted Dekker's characters seem repetitious and his sentences unimaginative. His writing style makes me feel like I am watching the same action/thriller movie over and over again.
"But, the one thing I truly enjoyed about Ted Dekker's work, is his ability to bring universal themes into his writing. His writing of love and how God relates that love to us (especially in Black, Red, and White), was very well done and I found myself greatly touched by it."

I see that the message is there, but with the poor fragmentary writing and the unbelievable characters, it just doesn't touch me.

I know which of Dekker's books you've read, lori. What ones have you've read, Dana? I've read Three and Black (that's about all I could handle of his writing).

Thanks for discussing this with me!

Anonymous said...

i like ted dekker

Anonymous said...

though i agree that his qriting style is not the greatest, i really enjoyed reading Black,red, and white. i dont see any books that you have written so please keep your comments to yourself.

Anonymous said...

I read the first book of the circle trilogy (Black) and two of the lost books (chosen and infidel).

I was glad when they were over. Just not my cup of tea. I am a Christian and i understand what he is trying to portray but in my mind he doesn't succeed in doing so. I thought his books were mediocre at best.

I just finished reading a book by Paulo Coehlo called "The Alchemist". It is the best book i have ever read. Comparing him to Dekker i have this deeper seance of reality (even though both plots are unrealistic).

I understand the points that both Coehlo and Dekker make but The Alchemist crushes Black by far. I understand that people have different tastes so i don't except people to agree, im just sharing my opinion.

So yeah, if you ever get the chance to read The Alchemist, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT!!!

Black - 5\10
The Alchemist 10\10

Anonymous said...

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Rachel said...

I enjoyed the books as a good read, although the random hyphens did confuse me at times. It's kinda like when a painter adds a random splotch somewhere, that's just his style. Also not to be too random or anything there are 4 books, not just 3.

Anonymous said...

Truly appreciate what you're creating here!

Jen said...

Hm, I guess if you have only tried to read "Three" and "The Circle" then you have missed out. Try "Blink" by Ted Dekker - that's a brilliant one.

Unknown said...

I'm reading the 49th Mystic, and my main problem is that Dekker keeps insisting God is infinite and can't be threatened. And yet the whole BOOK is about the threat from Vlad Smith and the Horde. Ted: pick a side.

Unknown said...

Not to be snarky... It's just that I'm supposed to be gripped by this struggle when the book goes out of it's way to tell me there IS no real struggle... so why keep reading?

Unknown said...

Sorry, final thought: the book has a great spiritual message. But I'm on page 202 and... Got it. From an entertainment standpoint, the book claims to be a thriller, but how is it thrilling when it's already told you nothing anyone does matters because God always wins, period?