Tag Archives: Ted Dekker

Audiobook Review: A.D. 30

6 Jul

61qwuBzVwmL._SX311_BO1,204,203,200_The outcast daughter of a powerful Arabian sheikh, Maviah is called to protect the very people who rejected her. When their enemies launch an attack, Maviah escapes with the help of two of her father’s warriors. Their dangerous journey takes them to a brutal world subjugated by kings, where Maviah must form an unlikely alliance with King Herod of the Jews.

But Maviah’s path leads unexpectedly to an enigmatic teacher, who speaks of a way of life that offers greater power than any kingdom. His name is Yeshua, and his words turn everything known on its head. Though following him may present even greater danger, it may be the only way for Maviah to save her people–and herself.

 

tedTed Dekker (born October 24, 1962) is a New York Times best-selling author of over thirty five novels. He is best known for stories which could be broadly described as suspense thrillers with major twists and unforgettable characters, though he has also made a name for himself among fantasy fans. Ted’s latest work, a historical fiction based on the teachings of Jesus, is a radical departure from previous outings and is receiving critical acclaim.

 

My Impressions:

I have read a lot of Ted Dekker’s books. He has a unique way of exploring spiritual truths, and A.D. 30 is no exception. For those of you who are expecting a speculative novel, you may be a bit surprised. With a setting of 2000+ years ago, this novel fits the historical genre, yet has aspects of suspense, while incorporating some mystical elements as well. I found the audiobook riveting, making this one hard to turn off. It is definitely a recommended read.

Maviah has been shuttled around from birth. Her mother’s origins and her father’s disdain forced her into slavery in Egypt at a very young age. Reluctantly her father brings her back to his household, but it is an uneasy relationship. Maviah is an outcast and could have easily slipped into the role of victim. But her tenacious spirit and her desire for justice drive her on a dangerous journey through the Middle East to the royal courts of Palestine and an encounter with Yeshua, a prophet who seemingly speaks in riddles.

Maviah is an interesting character. A true outcast, she is also intelligent and shrewd with a mother’s heart that remains open and tender despite the battering it takes. Her first person account lets the reader into all she experiences. The setting runs from the Arabian desert to the courts of Herod Antipas to the cities beside the Sea of Galilee — familiar settings for those who read the Bible, yet in Dekker’s hands are exotic and dangerous. Complex characterization is a big plus in this novel, with Dekker’s portrayal of Jesus the most intriguing. I was often reminded of Jesus’ question to his disciples — Who do you say I am? (Mark 8:29), because of the various reactions from the other characters. A.D. 30 explores God’s role as a true father, the nature of God’s Kingdom, what forgiveness looks like and what it means to really see. Because of the many elements of this novel — rich in historical detail and suspense-filled — I think it has a wide appeal. The reader for the audiobook did a great job as well. All in all, I really, really enjoyed this book!

Highly Recommended.

Audience: adults.

To purchase this book, click HERE.

(I purchased this book from Audible. All opinions expressed are mine alone.)

Tags: , ,

  • Categories Uncategorized

Ted Dekker on His New Novel, Hacker

12 Jun

tedThanks to Worthy Publishing and Ted Dekker for sharing his thoughts on his newest novel, Hacker.

 

Your main character in Hacker, Nyah, makes a living by cracking the firewalls of major corporations. What role does technology play in her development as a character?

Ted Dekker: Nyah roots a great deal of her identity in technology. In doing so she defines who she is by what she does. She even says so at the beginning of the book. I am a hacker. We all do this. For her, technology is what she knows, it’s what defines her, and provides the comfort zone. But it’s also her prison, which she comes to discover later.

How does personal loss affect Nyah’s view of God?

TD: When we meet Nyah, we find her in a place of great suffering especially for someone her age. That colors everything, just as it does for everyone else. For Nyah, the inescapable question is, “Why is there such suffering in the world?” Or more to the point, “Why is all of this happening to me?” That offense, that feeling of injustice and unfairness, feeds her entire view of the world, including her view of God as a distant, uncaring creator.

952753Why do you consider Hacker a modern-day parable?

TD: Parables are meant to re-frame the world differently so we can experience it again for the first time. Hacker takes a simple concept that many people already believe, that there’s another reality so near to us that we’re unaware of its presence most of the time, and puts it center stage. The story doesn’t have a moral or try to make a point per se, because that’s not what parables are for, but it does ask you to look at the world through new eyes—Nyah’s. The central question in each book in this series is, “Who am I?”

What prompted you to explore that question?

TD: The question of identity is central to all of life and, in fact, most of my own striving and struggle can be traced back to it. We define ourselves, almost without thinking much of it, by what we do. I’m a mother, a father, a man, a woman, a writer, an accountant… The list is neverending. But strip that all away, as death will one day for all of us, and what remains? Are you, at your core, really a mother or a father or an accountant? Or are you something far more and we’ve only bought into the notion that this costume, which we call the body and our careers and talents, is really who we are? The series so far includes a 17-year-old who claims she has been buried alive, a 13-year-old orphan with no memory, and a 17-year-old genius computer hacker.

What are the similarities between these characters?

TD: [Laughs.] You’ll have to read the books to find out for yourself. Ultimately, they are all forced to take a journey that begins in the valley of the shadow of death and ends on the other side of it.

What role does the unseen play in your books?

TD: An enormous role, because that’s how it is in real life even in a literal way. Physicists tell us that the visible universe is a miniscule slice of what actually exists, we just can’t see the rest. But just because you can’t see something doesn’t mean it’s non-existent.

What makes your characters in this series “outlaws”?

TD: It’s their journeys, which lead them “out of the law” of death and suffering into the light. It’s the same journey we all get to take, and which we’re called to.

You grew up as a missionary kid among cannibals in Indonesia. How do you think your unusual upbringing affects your writing and your faith today?

TD: My upbringing gives me a unique way of looking at the world. Understand, I grew up among people for whom spirituality was integral to life. It wasn’t tacked on or part of life… There was no separation. They believed in the unseen, they witnessed its powers, and lived as though the seen and the unseen were woven together in a beautiful, mysterious way.

(Thanks so much to Worthy Publishing for access to this interview with Ted Dekker and the review copy of Hacker.)

To find out more about Hacker, including my review, click HERE.

 

Tags: ,

Book Review: Hacker

11 Jun

952753My name is Nyah and I’m a hacker. I know things most people would never believe. Things that shouldn’t exist, but do.

Seventeen year old Nyah Parks is a genius hacker whose world is unraveling. Deeply scarred from a horrific accident that killed her father and brother, and left her mother with irreparable brain damage, Nyah is barely holding the last shreds of her life together.

Now, her mother’s health is deteriorating quickly and Nyah faces the grim prospect of losing her, too. One last ditch hope exists–an experimental brain surgery that could buy her mother more time. But Nyah must scrape together enough money to pay for it before it’s too late.

Desperate and with no other choice, Nyah turns her programming skills to cracking the firewalls of the world’s largest corporations. She exposes their weaknesses, and then offers her services to secure their systems from hackers.

But when the most dangerous job of her life backfires and forces her to go on the run, she encounters an impossible reality that shouldn’t exist, but does.

A hack unlike any other. A hack that will take her beyond the firewall of the human brain itself. A hack, which may be the only way to save her mother now.

What if there was a way to tap into the unseen reality that surrounds us all? Would you hack in? How far would you go to find the answers to your deepest questions? The answer lies deep beyond the firewall.

Tap in, strap in, and experience the mind-twisting ride with Nyah. What you find waiting on the other side of the firewall might forever change the way you see yourself and the world you live in.

 

tedTed Dekker (born October 24, 1962) is a New York Times best-selling author of more than twenty novels. He is best known for stories which could be broadly described as suspense thrillers with major twists and unforgettable characters, though he has also made a name for himself among fantasy fans.

Dekker was born to missionaries who lived among the headhunter tribes of Indonesia. Because his parents’ work often included extended periods of time away from their children, Dekker describes his early life in a culture to which he was a stranger as both fascinating and lonely. It is this unique upbringing that forced him to rely on his own imagination to create a world in which he belonged.

After leaving Indonesia, Dekker graduated from a multi-cultural high school and took up permanent residence in the United States to study Philosophy and Religion. Upon earning his Bachelor’s Degree, he entered the corporate world and proceeded to climb the proverbial ladder. But his personal drive left him restless and, after many successful years, he traded corporate life for wide range of entrepreneurial pursuits that included buying and selling businesses, healthcare services, and marketing.

In the early nineties while visiting a friend who had just written a book, Dekker decided to pursue a long held desire to be a novelist. Over the course of two years he wrote two full length novels before starting from scratch and rewriting both. Now fully enamored by the the process and the stories, he realized that storytelling was in his blood and a new obsession to explore truth through story gripped him anew.

He sold his business, moved his family to the mountains of Western Colorado and began writing full-time on his third novel. Two years and three novels later his first novel was published.

Dekker’s novels have sold over 5 million copies worldwide. Two of his novels, Thr3e and House, have been made into movies with more in production. Dekker resides in Austin, Texas with his wife Lee Ann and two of their daughters.

 

My Impressions:

Ted Dekker is an author that will take you on a thrill ride and make you think along the way. In his newest book, Hacker (part of The Outlaw Chronicles) explores the concept of reality. Is there a reality that exists apart from the physical world? Can we reach it?

Nyah Parks is a prodigy. At seventeen she has finished both college and graduate school and makes her living hacking into corporations and then building systems to keep their data safe. But Nyah’s family was torn apart by an car accident that left her father and brother dead and her mother severely injured. Needing $250,000 to enroll her mother in an experimental program, Nyah attempts the biggest hack of her life. But things go terribly wrong. On the run from ruthless corporate enforcers and the FBI, Nyah turns to her brilliant friend, Austin, for help. His self-experimentation may just be the cure for Nyah’s mom.

Hacker starts out like an adrenaline-pumping thriller but quickly takes a mind-bending turn that is classic Dekker. Austin is determined to hack into his own brain to access the reality he believes exists just beyond the physical world. He believes  without observation nothing exists. Nyah’s fixation on her mother’s injury is shadowed by her belief in the randomness of life. Both are searching and when joined together in their hacking experiments come to see the source of reality and its definite plan, pattern and purpose.

Hacker is a tech-heavy science fiction novel. There are lots of concepts I didn’t really get; but that was okay. I was able to enjoy the ride without having to know just how everything was supposed to work. But I did get the spiritual concepts that Dekker expressed. His subtle introduction of God and His word is very effective for this very science-focused novel. The characters are very interesting and despite their genius IQs, are very  relatable. I think Hacker will appeal primarily to the YA and New Adult demographic. At the end of the book, both main characters learn just what it means to surrender. And the action never really slows. I can really see Hacker being made into a movie.

A  good bet for the young adults in your life and a good choice for a book discussion group, I recommend Hacker.

Recommended.

Great For Book Clubs.

(Thanks to Worthy Publishing and First Look for my review copy. All opinions expressed are mine alone.)

To purchase a copy of this book, click on the image below.

 

Tags: ,

Newer Entries →