Black (Ted Dekker)

[*]

Ted Dekker is supposed to be a pretty good writer. I would not assent to that proposition based on this book. Based on the high ratings and good reviews of this work on Amazon.com, I had hoped this would be a good introduction to the author and a fun, but challenging, read. I could barely finish it.

The one thing Mr. Dekker does well here is create two distinct worlds and keep the protagonist and the reader wondering which one is real. Is it the world that seems to be our own, with all of its wars, disease and crime? Or is it the land the protagonist visits when he is sleeping (or in a coma), where evil is decidedly black and good is innocent and naive?

The problem is that I don't care. The fantasy world is not rich enough and things are too black and white. The allegory is both too obvious and too dense to penetrate. I'm not sure what the author is trying to show. Events in the real world are either too coincidental or too dependent on an almost omniscient and omnipotent antagonist. No one has that kind of power and insight. And the protagonist is too laid back for a novel. Things just happen to him, even when he's trying to be a bit assertive. I made it all the way to the end of the book, looking for something to really happen or be explained. It never was. And I don't care enough about it to pick up the other two books and spend the hours needed to read them.