Black

Book One, The Birth of Evil

By: Ted Dekker

Narrated by: Rob Lamont

Length: 12 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's summary

Fleeing assailants through alleyways in Denver late one night, Thomas Hunter narrowly escapes to the roof of an industrial building. Then a silent bullet from the night clips his head and his world goes black. When he awakes, he finds himself in an entirely different reality, a green forest that seems more real than where he was. Every time he tries to sleep, he wakes up in the other world, and soon he truly no longer knows which reality is real. Slowly he realizes that each reality dramatically impacts the other. In each world unspeakable evil is unleashed and millions of lives hang in the balance. The fate of two worlds depends on the actions of one man: Thomas Hunter.

Don't miss any of Ted Dekker's Circle Trilogy. Also, listen to this free interview with the author.

©2004 Ted Dekker (P)2004 Oasis Audio LLC

Only for fans of

With BLACK, this trilogy got off to an interesting, if not entirely-original, dual dimension/reality premise. But the sloppy writing (frequently-repeated descriptive words in the same sentence, too-easy obstacle resolutions for paper-thin characters, and derivative Biblical "parallels" which feel more like laziness than homage) combined with amateurish, clunky narration (which sounds to me like a minister moonlighting as an audio book reader) made this "epic" trilogy feel more like an over-hyped, thinly-veneered sermon on the mount that anything approaching engrossing fiction. And WHITE is, by far, the worst offender of the three books in this regard.

I felt compelled to offer this opinion because many reviews of the Dekker books have been so over-the-top glowing that I now believe that the author's primary readership must be among the ranks of hard-core "believers". About half-way through book two, RED, this occurred to me and after a web search, I could find not a single review of a Ted Dekker book that did not originate from a "Christian" site. And - surprise, surprise ? not one reviewer had a single criticism.

Don't get me wrong, there were some very imaginative elements to the story - and I have nothing against "Christian Fiction" or any other genre of writing. I'd just prefer to have a bit more truth in advertising. This is a Christian story for Christian readers who are so glad to have anything to read that even pretends to be suspenseful or exciting that they are happy to overlook the author and narrator's shortcomings, and will praise this trilogy to high-heaven . . . no pun intended ;)

Narrator speaks at double speed without pauses…

Would you try another book from Ted Dekker and/or Rob Lamont?

Uncertain.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Black?

Still trying to get through the story.

Would you be willing to try another one of Rob Lamont’s performances?

Doubtful. The narrator read clearly enough, but did not pause at all between sentences with various characters talking. Conversations sound like one big run--on-sentance that is difficult to tell who is talking. This is so frustrating, that I find it hard to believe the book was produced this way at all.

This is perhaps the 30th or so audio book I have listened to from Audible, and I never imagined this style of reading was out there. I will have to listen to the previews for every book now just to make sure I don't get another poor reader like this again.

Not my cup of grape juice

I do not understand why Christians can not read Harry Potter due to the magical content, yet they can read C.S. Lewis and Ted Dekker.

Is it because they need the writing to be so bad that know one would ever believe it?

Black is a wonderful, inspiring read

I have read "Black" and the sequel "Red". Wonderful, inspiring books. I am now getting the audio version of "Black" and look forward to "Red" & "White". These books are hard to put down, Ted Dekker is a very talented, unique story teller. I would highly recommend his work. This is a great analogy of good versus evil.

YES!

Could not put it down! Please get "RED" the continuation... then "White" the finale"...in the correct order please!!
GREAT STUFFF!!!

Just the prelude ...

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 ...

Fabulous!

This was my first Ted Dekker audio book,It has made me want to listen to more. The story is compelling and engaging. The narrator is excellent. Highly recommended

Yawn

My apologies to the MANY people who loved this book, but I gave it my best shot... half-way through I just gave up. Perhaps it would have been better if it were severely abridged, but it just went on, and on, and on.... and so did I... to another book

Great Start

What did you love best about Black?

the story is engaging and exciting, the two worlds intersecting through this one man is a great idea that i hope gets explained in more detail in the other books.

What did you like best about this story?

i found myself getting enticed by the wonder of the "other world" the beauty and simplicity of this place where good and evil were as distinct as black and white. yet for me the magic didn't carry over into the current world. while in those parts i found myself longing for the next time the story moved back to the magical world.

What about Rob Lamont’s performance did you like?

the performance was solid. Rob's pace seemed to be spot on and the timing didn't seem at all forced. the only knock i would say if that some of the voices he uses for the characters are inconsistent at parts.

Any additional comments?

the fact that this book ends on a cliff hanger is somewhat annoying it is obvious that it is meant to be read as a series but some resolution would be nice at the end of the first act. overall I recommend giving it a listen. there are clear religious allegories. Dekker has obviously been inspired by the likes of Lewis in this respect but it is done well.

Definitely the First in a Trilogy

This was a pleasant listen. The ending was very open-ended and did little to resolve much of the build-up which I presume occurs in the other two books of the trilogy. Very much comparable to the first Lord of the Rings movie. Story was good not great. That and the open-ending left this book just Two-Stars short of a full Five.

You can't just go to a bookstore or library and tear a book into thirds and then pay full price... well I guess you could, but who would want to. As well, this book was not alone enough to rush me into necessantly obtaining the other two books in the trilogy, although I will likely return to them when it is under convenient circumstances. So... 3-stars it is.

Narrator did a fine job and I found him enjoyable.

Thoroughly moorish .

very good read, as always . Did Rob Lamont really do all those voices? really great.