Book Review - Green

Since Green is part of a series, I shall try to explain the big story first.


The Circle - Black, Red, and White

Every time he dreams, Thomas Hunter goes back and forth between two worlds, fighting evil.  In our world, terrorists wield a deadly virus which threatens to wipe out all humanity.  In the world of colored forests and pools and deserts, the evil black bat Teeleh plots to turn the people against Elyon (Hebrew for Most High), their Creator and Lover.  In both worlds, Thomas must understand the threat, and do what he can to save those he loves.

I love this stories.  They're fast-paced and modern in style, but the sense of parallels to Biblical truths are amazing.  At the heart of them, they're about the Great Romance, the love story God is writing for His people.  They show our utter fallen nature, our complete repulsive and rebellious nature, and yet how God still woos and calls and comes to rescue us.  They show how He wants our hearts, and how He gives us the freedom to reject Him, but how that can never stop His love.    




Green (short summary)
After three books, the series basically concluded, though there were a few odd loose ends hanging.  But it was satisfying.  So I was surprised to see a fourth book come out now, years later.  What else could Dekker do with the series?

Write a Book Zero, apparently.  A beginning and ending.  What a strange idea!  More on that later.

Green starts up years after the end of White, in the world of forests and sand.  Thomas and the Circle are losing hope.  They have waited for Elyon's return for a long time, and Thomas' son, Samuel, wants to rid the world of the Horde forever with his sword.  But the Circle has been told to love their enemy, and Thomas' wife still has hope for the Horde's redemption.  Thomas seeks hope for the Circle, and in the process creates a doorway between the two worlds once again.

Thomas returns to our world.  And unspeakable Evil enters the other world, seeking to crush the Circle's last breaths of hope.

An apocalyptic chain of events follows, and we rush along to the ending, wondering who will believe in Elyon at the end when everything seems hopeless, and who will reject Him and fall into darkness forever.

The ending is strange.  In an odd way, it connects back to the beginning of the series.  Hence, it is "Book Zero."



Likes

- First, as confusing as it still is, I think it was very clever to connect the beginning and ending like this.  It was definitely a unique idea!    

- Certain characters did get redeemed, which was marvelous.

- Loved how the theme of waiting and longing and wishing to see signs of God's presence were so similar to our time today.  Come, Lord Jesus!  But in the meanwhile, teach us to live by faith and trust You when all else seems hopeless.

- There were evil vampires.  Yes, this actually made me happy.  I could have done without some of the nastiness, but there was no question that the very idea of vampirism is completely opposite of sacrifice.  One takes life, the other gives it.  And I feel there were still some truths in this book regarding blood's significance (a biblical idea) which I may have missed. 

- Again, wonderful contrasts between good and evil. 


Dislikes


- I don't mind seeing some of a story from evil's perspective, but in my opinion this book went overboard. I kept feeling dirty, reading about the sensual evil and blood lust of the bad characters.  The bad guys get way too much page time, as I see it.  Almost felt like more than the good guys.  Maybe that's why I never felt as close or invested in the protagonists of Green as in the other books.  And not being so invested made me just not care as much about the whole book. 

- For the above reason, I would not recommend this book to kids, whereas I might recommend the other three if I thought they were mature enough.  This one was definitely darker and contained more sensual descriptions.  Those spots really bothered me, and I'm 25.      

- Another certain character didn't get redeemed, which was very bothersome.  Necessarily heartbreaking, perhaps.  But not a wonderful way to end the story.
 
- Theologically, I was bothered by the ending.  In fact, the structure of the whole thing bothers me, though as I said it was a nifty idea.  But history as circular, not linear?  Maybe Dekker is playing with the idea that God is outside of time, and that therefore it's not as clear-cut and understandable as we think.  But theoretically, the whole series could be seen as an eternal time loop, wherein one character is never redeemed...  Ahh!  The thought drives me crazy.

- Since writing the original three books of The Circle, Dekker has written The Paradise Novels and The Lost Books, all of which apparently tie in somehow to The Circle.  I have not read those, so there were lots of characters and events referred to in Green which I felt I should know about but didn't.  Dekker fanatics who have read those series may find the ties back to other books fabulous.  But not having read them made me confused.  I think there would have been a better flow between Green and the other books if Dekker had written it right after White, before he got so wrapped up in side plots and characters.


My Verdict

I did not think Green was nearly as good as the original three books (Black, Red, and White).  It had some very good moments, and I wanted it to wrap up nicely, but it left me feeling unsatisfied.  Most of the time it just didn't feel like the same series.

I've been debating about whether I would  recommend this book.  I 'spose if you're a Dekker fanatic, or you really want to see some loose ends tied up, go for it.  Then tell me what you thought.  But if you're expecting another book like the first three, I think you'll be disappointed.

Maybe there's a reason why three is such a perfect number.  I rather wish Dekker had agreed.

For the Sake of My Sisters

(another picture from my mother, taken on the snow day last week) 

I don't have anything monumental to share.  Plenty of little things have kept me busy... 

On second thought, I suppose one of those little things is big enough to post about; I've started hanging it with our youth group at church.

Depending on my reader, the topic of youth group might be controversial.  I might be making everyone shake their head in wonder at my confused and unwise little head, either regarding my past ideas or my current stance (again, depending on my reader).  So if you're getting ready to throw snowballs of disagreement, please throw gently, and don't put rocks in them! ;-)  This is my journey.  Yours may be different.  Let's love each other anyways, shall we?    

Funny, I never thought I'd be helping with a youth group.  Even a year ago I would have protested loudly.  Anything but that!  Some of this had to do with my own feelings of uncoolness (at 25 I can still feel, and unfortunately look, like an awkward 18-year-old).  But that was actually insecurity and pride in disguise.  Also, I thought youth groups were usually more damaging than helpful, since they have potential to splinter family time and lump a buch of immaturity together where it can be even more immature.

Some dear friends (on both sides!) may gasp in shock to hear me say all this, but I think I'm changing my mind: not all youth groups are fundamentally wrong. *gasp! shudder! stagger in shock!* 

Of course I still wish all familes would do everything together.  But until I have a husband to follow who decides how we will do things, and since neither of my parents object, I'm throwing my lot in with my curent church family, full of wise and godly folks.  I was asked to be an adult female presence at youth events, to engage in conversation with girls, to provide that five or ten minutes of attention that let them know they're loved and cared for.

To my own surprise, I was compelled and eager to say yes.  It's already exciting!

I still have my reservations.  (Hope those are allowed!) I still believe youth group can be damaging if it's only a way the younger set isolates itself from the rest of the church family.  And I still believe even the best youth group in the world cannot compare with parents discipling their own kids well.

But I also see a church in which those two concerns are largely answered by parents who really are discipling their kids and showing by example what godly adulthood is.  I see young people who serve each other, who serve the younger kids in nursury and AWANA, who serve their families and the community.  And I see little girls growing in young women, girls I know "of" but want to actually know, who I now have the opportunity to hang out with regularly in the midst of their busy schedule.  

Finally, I remember my short time in a different youth group about 8 years ago, when my world was falling apart, and how a dear youth leader's wife showed me love and attention and got me started journaling my thoughts to the Lord.  I've never been the same since.  If I can encourage even one young lady as much as I was encouraged, I would count my time worthwhile.    

That's not an arguement per se, just some of my rambling thoughts on how God is changing me, teaching me to walk with people in real life (Ephesians 4:1-3).  Sometimes my paradigms shift so wildly, it's embarrassing to tell anyone about the shift - ether they can't believe what I think now, or they can't believe I ever thought what I did.  But I want to record these for my own benefit, and perhaps they will encourage someone else, too.

And MBC youth, you're stuck with me and my funny hats, silly accents, and uncoolness for a while! ;-)

~ ~ ~

Now, on a very different note, here are a few thoughtful posts on Christmas I can across lately.  They were so lovely, from two beauty-loving Christian ladies, that I wanted to share them:

The first is from farmer's wife, homeschooling mom, and poetess, Ann Voskamp:

4 Ways to Celebrate Christ in Christmas

And the second is from a sweet southern lady, Lanier Ivester, a homemaker, literary artist, and shepherdess:

Glad and Golden Hours

A fine weekend to you all! 

It actually did snow!

My lovely mother and I took a walk around the neighborhood this morning.  School and other things were canceled because of ice on the roads, so we got to enjoy the fresh lovely whiteness!  And as you can see, I decided such a walk called for a cloak and a bit of melodramatic excitement. 

Here are a few other pictures my mom took:  

Lots of trees had not lost their leaves yet, but they were falling this morning with the snow, like showers of lovely green and gold snow themselves, making such a loud pattering sound!

Beautiful and Christmas-like, eh?

Farewell for now!  I need to get back to work... and I think I need to finish off the snow ice cream.

"Can you do the Battle Song?"

I am currently drinking Earl Grey tea, reading Hope for Relationships stuff, hearing about the possible snow and ice tomorrow, and listening to the Narnia soundtrack.  And thinking of Samantha, who loved to come into my room while I was staying with her family in college, leap onto the bed, and beg to hear "the Battle song."

Marvelously good times. Don't you love it how certain songs can remind you so strongly of dear places and people and special times?

Just Barely, by the Skin of My Teeth!

NaNoWriMo Begins!

I won't be doing my writing until this afternoon or this evening, as it turns out.  But the adventure begins today!  Frightening, exciting.  Hard work and long hours ahead.  Here we go!

(Short post, I know.  But I couldn't leave an ingredient list up on a day like this, could I?)

Better than $5 a serving

Today I made chicken, vegetables, and noodles with sauce for supper.  

Chicken - $1.50
Noodles- 50 cents
carrots and zucchini - 75 cents
Seasonings - 10 cent
Onions from our Grandparents' garden - free
Herbs from our garden - free


Meal for about eight (only four of us here now, so we had lots leftover) - not quite $3, if my estimations were right.  Nice.  :-) 

Rainy Days - Perfect Cooking Weather!

(image from the BBC production of Little Dorrit)

It's been rainy here today - I love it!  While I was driving Whit to school, we listened to Andrew Peterson's Clear to Venus album and kept hearing rain mentioned in songs.  I thought that was cool. :-)

Today I have done the following:

-Smashed my finger in the suburban door.  Ahaha, that was painful.   But what could I do but laugh?  I only smashed it because ... well, not quite sure how it happened. It had something to do with the umbrella...

- Made chocolate cheesecake, with raspberries and whipped cream as topping, for my brother Whit's birthday.  Hurray!  He's 16, and quite a fine young man.  I am a blessed sister in each of my brothers. :-)

- Baked chicken from the freezer, since the oven was hot... I guess we'll have chicken again...  Hey, in pita bread! Mmmm...

- Ground some wheat...

- ...And mixed up some dough for pitas, which is rising at the moment

- Washed dishes 

- Listening to musicals and Frank Sinatra

- Spent too much time on Facebook...

- And now am finally sitting down to do some editing/writing.  With mint tea and a sprinkle-decked donut.  Aren't I so disciplined?  (no answer needed, thank you)

 ~~~

Little Elba, how’s the rain in South America?
Does it fall upon the rooftops of the sick?
Do they thank the Lord for coming up with such a great idea
and dream about a place beyond all this? 

~from Andrew Peterson's song, Land of the Free~

Would you like to read my NaNoWriMo novel? Old and/or New?

Life has been busy lately!  Just yesterday I was blessed to be able to show a mother from my church how to make bread.  She has a daughter with so many food allergies it's a challenge every day coming up with anything for her to eat.  Most bread has either some form of corn, soy, or a grain which she can't eat, so the brave mother is learning to make bread which she can eat.  We had lots of fun all morning, and she went home with a couple of kinds of bread for her family to try.  I'm so glad I do not have a full-time constricting job to keep me from doing random ministries like that!   Food allergies are more scary than I used to think, too.  After talking with the mother of a daughter with a frightening amount of them, I can now be more sympathetic when I meet people (and their families) who have them.      

*drumroll*

Now for the news.  Are you ready?  I would like to give more people a chance to read last year's NaNoWriMo novel, Brecken's Quest (or The Un-monstering) Unfortunately I am still slightly paranoid that some stranger might find my few brilliant paragraphs, and steal them, which would be tragic if I ever re-wrote it enough to try to publish it.  But if I know you in real life, or have shown yourself to me to be a genuine person, then I will share my story with you.  

So, if you want to read, or re-read, a wild adventure of a brother and sister searching for the lost King, encountering monsters of all shapes and sizes, friends winged and friends many-toothed, secret passages and magic gifts, loads of corniness and wonderful moments,  and a young, rediculous, happy, encouraging bard named Melod - then please let me know!  My email is rael.henson[at]gmail.com, only insert @ where it goes... there, do you think that will confuse the Dread Monsters of Spam?  I'll risk it for the sake of my readers. ;-)  Or if I already have your email, just comment! 

Or if, perhaps, you don't care to re-read my old tale, but would like to follow my new one as I write it (beginning in 16 days!), let me know that, too!  It's energizing to write for a live audience, and (if you don't want to steal my marvelous *cough* tale) I would love to have you aboard.  

This year, it is going to be a wild ride. (I'm also much busier - it will be challenging to write/edit four hours for work while I have about 1600 words of a novel to pound out afterward every day!  Should be interesting.  Can I do it?)  This tale will involve some old characters (Melod will be back, of course), outlaws, a lost and unlikely treasure, a cook whose ingredients are never right, a servant girl who sees more than people suspect, a young man who's eyes are being open but must pretend to still be blind, and an enslaved nation of people desperately in need of hope and light and truth.  Surprises await reader and writer both!  Would you like to join me?    

Meeting Andrew Peterson

A few years ago, my older brother Sam and I were driving for five hours across Texan and New Mexican desert to visit old friends.  Sam is a computer engineer, a wise and quiet man of thought, so he brought excellent listening material for the trip - talks from the Truth Project, John Piper speaking on God's glory, and a CD by some guy named Andrew Peterson who he thought I would like. 


Far Country - Listen! 


I did.  Oh, how I did!  Those moments of listening to Peterson's stories and poetry filled me with new longing for Home.  I was lifted above everyday life to get a glimpse of the bigger picture, wider and freer than even the vast plains and endless desert sky.  More homelike than the welcome of candles and music and laughter at our little trip's end.
 
I hope you like it, too.



(By the way, if you know me apart from online, I don't have this, this, or this album yet.  Oh, and my birthday's coming up... *cough, cough*)

Little Pretties

 I thought I'd pop in at my blog for a few minutes.  Greetings from my desk on a beautiful Saturday afternoon!  Doesn't this cup of garden flora look delicious?  It smells like a whole field of wildflowers and honey.  Mmm....

And don't candles make you feel studious and excited?  I love how they brighten up any little corner.  They're almost like cats on the hearth, a dog at your feet, or the perfect background music.  Why in the world does a little fire enchant us so? 

 

Here's Little Dorrit the Desk, and the lower edge of a hat quilt that was handmade by my great grandmother.  

Alright, as you can see, my desk is so pretty and cozy that I must get back to work at it. Goodbye for now! 

Am I too comfortable?

Disturb us, Lord, when 

We are too well pleased with ourselves, 
 

When our dreams have come true 

Because we have dreamed too little, 
 

When we arrive safely 

Because we sailed too close to the shore. 


Disturb us, Lord, when 

With the abundance of things we possess

We have lost our thirst for the waters of life;

Having fallen in love with life, 

We have ceased to dream of eternity
,

And in our efforts to build a new earth, 
 

We have allowed our vision 

Of the new Heaven to dim. 


Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly, 

To venture on wider seas 


Where storms will show your mastery; 


Where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars. 


 

We ask You to push back 

The horizon of our hopes; 

And to push us into the future 

in strength, courage, hope, and love. 


 

This we ask in the name of our Captain, who is Jesus Christ. 

 

Sir Francis Drake, 1577 

 

 

*"The Hostage" was painted by Edmund Blair Leighton.

A Morning in the Life

With all my bookish posts lately, I feel the need to write something more personal and everyday.  I enjoy getting glimpses of people's habits and schedules, so howsabout a "what does your morning look like"  post? Mine's often a little like this:

~~~

Alarm!!!!!! Promptly shut off and ignored - bad habit!  Finally... ok. Get up.  Up.  Up....  Stumble into the kitchen and turn on the coffee pot (if I set it up the night before... otherwise there might be a pot to wash and beans to grind first) and commence to wake up.  Here would be the part I get dressed for the day... if I had picked out my clothes the night before, which I usually don't.  Another bad habit. 

Now Coffee and Bible and sometimes Journal! :-)  This makes me happy, especially when I'm up early enough to spend time pouring out thoughts and prayers onto the page.  Journaling does not make one more spiritual,  and the words of Scripture are far more priceless than any feeble prayer or thought I could scribble.   But for me it's an amazingly rich and rewarding discipline. When I get beyond mechanically reading to actually "seeing," the real excitement and wonder begins.  And the best way I've found to do that is to write to the Author, to ask Him about it and try to say it back to see if I understand, and to record my life in little marks as a way to tangibly offer myself back to Him.  Sometimes the morning is rushing, and distractions fill my head, and nothing makes it onto the page.  And that's alright, because there are no commands about journaling or Quiet Time At Six A.M. Or Thou Art Not A Christian.  God doesn't show up in the morning between 5 and 7 and then disappear for the rest of the day.

About 6:30, time to make lunches for the Bob and the Mother!   Usually sandwiches, fruit, sometimes yogurt and cookies...  Pumpkin cookies today, which I actually made last night!  Haven't cooked enough lately, so I was excited (as were a few other folks around here, I think!)   They stay at school for a huge part of the day, so they need lots of sustanence!  The Mother stays busy teaching Latin and preparing and grading, and Bob sits discussing in classes like Greek and Logic and Great Books and Algebra and Bible and History.  Bob also studies up at school and later runs with the cross country team, which practice ends around 5-5:30, so he needs a LOT of food.  He's a bit like a Hobbit who has drank gallons of Ent water, who also runs all the time and is decidedly not rounded.  Just imagine.  

Breakfast! Today it was eggs and pumpkin banana bread.  Sometimes this is our quiet little family time at the kitchen table, when we eat together and talk, but today it didn't really happen.  I wonder why? We all seemed a bit distracted and rushed...  Oh, and  uh...I was probably too distracted on my laptop at the kitchen table to invite sitting and talking.    Oops.   

And then they're out the door, and the house is still.   Now, on to the stuff of the day!   I need to write for work for about five hours, water plants and do some cleaning, maybe make some pizza dough for tonight, and do a little brainstorming and work for something that's happening tomorrow...  It might not all get done.  That's the potentially frustrating beauty of this job - flexibility!   May I use it as a blessing today, and not a curse.   
 
So, that's just a bit of my flawed morning, lived by a flawed girl, but blessed and led by my Father in so many good ways which I don't deserve.  

I pray you have a blessed and exciting day, my readers!   Remember, the Lion is not safe.   But He is good.

~~~

P.S.  My brother Zach, who has been gone nearly 2 months, just returned from Peru!  He had the coolest beard, but is back at work today so I'm afraid it's gone now. Praise God for his safe return and all his adventures!  

Review of Sir Dalton and the Shadow Heart

I was given the opportunity to do another review for a free copy of a book, this time for the Sir Dalton and the Shadow Heart blog tour.   This is too much fun!  I feel like a real writer, doing all these reviews. ;-)

Four or five years ago, I borrowed and read the first three books of Chuck Black’s Kingdom series.  While the writing was not great, the storytelling swept me away, and the pictures of Biblical truths had me eagerly rereading Scripture to savor the source of the echoes.  Each book ended with the piano music to a haunting (but not too difficult) song, which I simply loved.   

Chuck Black has been off my radar for a few years, but recently I discovered he’s still writing books set in the world of Arrethtrae, and I suddenly found the third of his second series in my hands.  I usually refuse to start in the middle of a series, but I couldn’t find copies of the first two in time and had to just jump in.  And in The Knights of Arrethtrae series, each book focuses on different characters, making them more episodic than epic.  There’s an epic level, of course, but it’s explained in the first few pages.

Sir Dalton’s story was a decent kids' adventure, an allegory full of medieval motifs like swords and knights and battle.  The main character learned some important things about being a Knight of the King, and there were some great pictures of spiritual principles about doubt, faith, friendship, and freedom.  

Most of the time I felt it was a bit too heavy-handed on the allegory to get let readers fully immerse themselves in the story, but when I did get lost in it, it was wonderful.  While allegory is not my favorite form of story, I don’t think it's evil.  Sometimes formulas and direct correlations are helpful, sometimes they are just dry and distracting.  

For a fairly short, kid-friendly book, Sir Dalton and the Shadow Heart was a thoughtful look at doubt in the life of Christians and how to combat it by knowing Christ and His Word well.  For timeless, better-written (but more challenging) allegory, find Pilgrim’s Regress or The Faerie Queene.

Beware Talking Coffee Containers

I'm already enjoying my new shiny NaNoWriMo travel mug. It's a lovely satiny brown, with a cheery blue NaNoWriMo logo on the side and the word "AUTHOR" beneath proudly proclaiming my fondness and ability of madly writing a novel in a month.

But last night as I rubbed its smooth metallic interior, and listened to the pleasant swooshing sound made by thwopping the lid on and off, I practically heard it talk. It was sneakily suggesting it could be My Precious, and it would make me very happy, and no one else must touch my shiny new present, oh no they must not...

Rather creepy, let me tell you, to almost hear inanimate objects say things like that.

I think letting other people use it might be a good way to combat its scheme to possess me. Here's another way - I can tell on it (er, really on myself) to God:

Lord, loosen in me the hold of visible things;
Help me to walk by faith and not by sight;
I would, through thickest veils and coverings,
See into the chambers of the living light.
Lord, in the land of things that swell and seem,
Help me to walk by the other light supreme,
Which shows thy facts behind man's vaguely hinting dream.

~George MacDonald, Diary of an Old Soul ~

I have a feeling things are talking to me more often than I realize, and too often, I am obeying their commands like a witless slave.

But though we can't see beyond the Veil yet, we can choose to trust God that there just may be far superior coffee containers there. And perhaps (but this is too wild!), just perhaps our attention will be so captured by such amazing and delightful Beings (One in particular), that we won't be thinking of coffee at all.

So how can I use my travel mug for God's glory? How can I be a faithful steward of this temporary thing that is either my tool... or my master? These are questions I ask myself, when at the back of my mind I know the answer:

"Stop writing this weird blog post, Rael, and get after the work set before you today, before the coffee is old and molding in that nice new mug of yours!"

"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." ~Matthew 6:19-21~