Chosen (Lost Books)

As I said in the previous reviews of all the Ted Dekker books that I have bought, which is well over 15.
They were all for my granddaughter, who is in her "twenties", and she's read them all.

I am not an avid reader, so I don't know about them personally.
I take her word for it, that they are GOOD !!

This book was vintage Dekker, spinning off the circle trilogy without the jumping from one world to the next. Chosen comes through with great suspence and excitement as the circle trilogy books with a new hero being born. Thomas Hunter is still a part of the grand scheme and the leader of the Forest guard who are still under the attack of the Horde. If you liked the Circle you will enjoy this first book of The Lost Books series.

This is as story that will keep you wanting to read more. Characters are well defined and the search for a leader growing to determine who that will be. I should have realized at the beginning this is a book written for young adults who will enjoy the book if they enjoy fantasy.

As I said in the previous reviews of all the Ted Dekker books that I have bought, which is well over 15.
They were all for my granddaughter, who is in her "twenties", and she's read them all.

I am not an avid reader, so I don't know about them personally.
I take her word for it, that they are GOOD !!

After reading about fifty pages of Chosen, I returned to the store and ordered the rest of the Lost Books, Project Showdown, and the Circle Trilogy. I love his stuff! These should keep me busy until Renegade, Chaos, and Sinner are released.

DEKkER writes the most excellent Christian fiction, and I hope to someday be as good of a writer as he. Dekker and Perretti inspired me to write STAND, the first book in my Chronicles of Trinian Trilogy, and I will have the prequel to STAND out soon.

STAND

Keep up the great work Ted, your imaginative stories, and creative writing continue to be a blessing and inspiration to us all! Keep the stories coming. "You have been chosen" to lead and we can't get enough!

If you have never read this book, I think you should if you like action and fighting. It may start off kind of slow but it gets better in the middle. Also it is kind of funny in the beginning. When you start reading this you will not want to stop. and you will laugh in the beginning.

I received both Chosen and Infidel (bk. 2 of the series) in the mail at noon. I finished reading them (yeah, both) at 6:00. I couldn't put them down. This series is the tie that binds the Circle Trilogy (Black, Red, White) to Dekker's other works. Ted is a master at cliffhangers and totally unexpected twists and now he's taken it to a whole new level by interweaving storylines over multiple books. It's absolutely awesome. If Dekker keeps up this pace throughout the Books of History Chronicles, it will be on par with C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia and J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings.

I loved this book. The plotting was tight, the characters are marked individuals without being caricatures, and I read this book in a single sitting, something i don't do much anymore. I can't wait to progress with this series.

This book is a riveting Apocalypse story. It has all the classics love, honor, horror, and disease. But, it has something new and unusual that is hard to capture. When a legend comes true and is as horrify as Teeleh or as cute as a Roush it is an awesome combination. If you are into books that probably wont happen, but are action packed you'll love this book. Chosen (The Lost Books)

I got this book on Christmas Eve, and I started reading it the day after Christmas. I tried not to finish the book in one day, I really did. But the book was just too good, I just had to know what happened next. I'm a die hard Dekker fan, and he didn't let me down.

Great book. Just read Black, Red, and White before these.

I've been a Ted Dekker fan since reading his Circle Trilogy a couple of years ago and have read every book he's written since then. His writing is some of the best I've seen from anyone, books like Thr3e and Showdown captured my imagination and kept me hungry for more. But something has happened to my favorite modern writer that I can not explain. His slide from great fiction began with Saint and continued with Skin. Since then he hasn't been able to write a novel that is up to par with some of his past works.

Chosen is no different. Ted Dekker returns to the series that made him great in the first place in his new series, the Lost Books. He returns Thomas Hunter of the Forest Guard as a secondary character who serves as a mentor of sorts to the four main characters, Johnis, Silvie, Darsal, and Billos. The Forest Guard are struggling to fight off the powerful Horde army which seeks to destroy the seven green forests of Elyon that are home to the forest dwellers. In response to this great threat Thomas Hunter lowers the age of his fighters from 18 to 16. When our four heroes are sent into the desert to prove their worth by completing a task Thomas gives them, they are approached by the Roush who inform them that they are destined to search out and find the seven lost Books of History.

No book Ted Dekker has written has conflicted me more then this one. At certain parts I wanted to throw the book at the wall in frustration as I could not stand the horrendous dialog and cheesy "character development" that plagued the entire middle part of the book. Other parts glued me to my seat as the action picked up and Dekker showed off his ability as a suspense and action writer. The book, like almost all Dekker books, ended magnificently, but like Saint and Skin, the middle was horrible.

The minuses for this book are easy to see for anyone with an eye for literature. First off, and I can not stress this enough, the dialog was simply horrible. There were many parts where I almost put it down for good because the way the characters spoke to each other was nothing like how real teenagers would talk. Shut your yapper scrapper? I can understand the need to keep the book "clean" (even if I think it takes away from the overall realism of the story) but this is ridiculous. Here is a conversation from the book to let you know just what I mean when I say the dialog is bad;
pg 109-111, bottom paragraph; (don't worry; I'll try to keep out spoilers).
Johnis; "you will follow me Darsal. You will follow me to hell itself if that's where I lead you" (note here that Johnis isn't the leader of the group yet, Darsal is).
Silvie; "she may have a point, Johnis. You know we could still cut back and make it to the forest in the darkness."
Johnis; "But we won't. We can't. Our destiny is out here in the desert of death where the Horde lies in wait, desperate to feed on our flesh."

What teenager talks like this? Have you ever in your life met a sixteen year old who would, or could in that matter, speak this way? Another obvious flaw for anyone willing enough to see it are the horrible cliché's and stereotypes Dekker shamelessly uses to move his story forward. The prophecy foretelling of a "chosen One" whose going to save the world has been done so many times that it should be illegal for anyone to use it ever again. For anyone to use this tired plot device again shows a lack of originality and effort on the part of the writer. What happened to the originality we saw in his earlier books? On another note, each and every one of these characters falls into a terrible stereotype.
Johnis; The smart weak guy that must overcome his physical weakness to save the world and get the girl.
Billos; The stupid tough guy.
Silvie; The strong girl with a soft spot.
Darsal; The insecure teenager.
I've seen every single one of these characters before, by different names and from different stories but their basic personality's remain the same. They do the same things, they act the same way, and they always find a way to beat the bad guys in the end. Hurray.

So why doesn't this book get a one or two star rating? Well, when Dekker is in his element I have to say he can still be great. The book starts out pretty well, but then slowly fades into mediocre during the middle part of the story, followed by a killer ending (read my review for Skin and you'll see I said almost the exact same thing). It took him about 200 pages to get back in his element, but once he got in his rhythm there was no going back. His tie ins with Showdown near the end of the book were incredible and kept me glued to my seat into the small hours of early morning. Dekker is a great action and suspense writer, and proves in the ending of this book he still has what it takes to create great fiction; too bad he doesn't stay in his element though.

The single greatest piece of advice Thomas Hunter gave to the characters in this book was to "think with your heart." Now, the single best piece of advice this humble fan can give to my favorite writer is to write from the heart. The Circle, Thr3e, and Showdown were all great books because Dekker didn't just go by the numbers and try to write best selling fiction, he wrote what God put into his heart and came out with some great stories. Other then that, I honestly think he should give the Circle a break. Ever since he wrote the original series almost every book since has been a tie in of one kind or another. Showdown was a great tie in, but then it just got weird as he forced the Horde into Skin and Saint. Chosen has the potential to explain a lot of unanswered questions from the Trilogy, like how Thomas was able to move between our two worlds and what he was doing in the Black Forest, but Dekker doesn't take advantage of this fact. Let's hope that in future entries in this series Dekker will take this opportunity to expand the story. Well, I hope my rambling was helpful to you.

Re-read value; low.

Chosen is a great book i mean it can make you feel like you're on a adventure (or a mission) to save the world the idea talks about Jesus son of God dieing on the cross to for give our sins just like what a kid in story did ( well of course not exactly the same but........................... either if you are not Christian it's a good book.

p.s i am not Joon Ho i'm his son Joseph Hwang 9 years old

I would describe this book as a "easy, summer read." The characters were very simple,not alot of depth to them but I felt the details to descriptions ie. creatures, travels, forest was above the average in this book.

I was so excited to see these books coming out! I spent most of one morning reading "Chaos" and most of the next day reading "Renegade." Just when you think you've got it figured out, Dekker throws a twist in and you're in the thick of it again. Heart racing, pulse pounding--don't sneak up on me when I'm reading Dekker--I may scream.

Gotta love it!

I am a huge Ted Dekker fan, and my favorite serie's is the Circle Trilogy. For the past year, I've been eagerly anticipating the release of The Lost Books. I loved Chosen. I appreciated the throw back to the second book of the series, Red with the re-introduction of the Roush, shatiki and the black forest. If you loved the Circle Trilogy, you will love Chosen!

I stayed with this one from start to finish! I'm now looking to order the next in the series. By all means, take a look at the books by Ted Dekker. Dekker is a mastermind and will catch all readers, from the novice to the most serious. Awesome!