Jacqueline

I understood that this was the first book in a trilogy from get-go, so I got all three. I'm about 1/4 of the way through the last one and it's amazing. I can't wait to listen to Dekker's "Slumber of Christianity", because this trilogy pretty much seems to be about just that.

The first book gets off to a strange start, and the narrator doesn't help much. By the time we get to the second book, the voice of the main character has changed from somewhat-boyish to a deep growling, and I didn't care for that too much.

Basically the trilogy is about two worlds, one in which faith is understood as a series of metaphors and one in which those same metaphors are physical realities. The metaphor-faith world I see as our world as it is now; the physical-faith world is what I think Dekker proposes our faith SHOULD be. Hence, the reason why I want to listen to "Slumber" ...

This series is less about the plot, but the message. I got beyond the poor narration and some of the character shallowness to the fact that most of us experience faith in a very vague way, but that there is another way - a way of hope and expectation. I want to hear more about this ...

Like others who have reviewed this book, I was disappointed in the narration. I've only been an audiobook listener for a short while, but other narrators seem to have a knack for voicing characters in ways that help the listener know who is speaking. This is especially helpful during quick dialog exchanges when the author doesn't always add the "John said" of "Mary shouted."

Mr. Lamont's narration not only failed to distinguish characters, but as other have noted it was also a little "juicy." I can only attribute that to his being caught up with excitement while reading the story.

The story, however, was very good and that kept me listening. Others have said that the plot wasn't great or that they figured it out early. For me, the twists and turns kept me guessing for a while, and although I had most of it figured out about 2/3 of the way through, the final twist knocked my socks off.

I am currently on the third book of Dekker's Circle trilogy. While the story is fantastic, the narrator is the same. But since I like the story so much, I'm willing to make the sacrifice.