World Famous Comics: Chosen--Graphic Novel: The Lost Books Series (Book 1)
Chosen--Graphic Novel: The Lost Books Series (Book 1)
By: Ted Dekker Publisher: Thomas Nelson Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Thomas Nelson Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 136 Publication Date: November 11, 2008 Reading Level: Young Adult
Think with your heart and prepare to die for you have been chosen.
The land of the Forest Dwellers has been decimated by the Horde under the watchful eye of the vilest of all creatures, Teeleh. Thomas Hunter, supreme commander of the Forest Guard, is forced to lower the recruitment age of his army from 18 to 16. From among thousands, four new recruits are chosen to lead--and perhaps die--for the greater good.
The chosen four are sent on a quest to prove their character, but their mission takes a dramatic turn when they are intercepted, sworn to secrecy, and redirected to a different endgame. Now they must find the seven lost Books of History. Books that have power over the past, present, and future. Books whose words are alive. Books sought by the Dark One that control not only the destiny of their world...but that of ours as well.
Not as good as I expected My review pertains to the graphic novel. I have not read the book so I am not sure how good is the style, description and expanded plot, but I was quite disappointed with graphic novel. I am fairly new to Ted Dekker books, although, I have read his Black/Red/White trilogy recently, and I thought it was one of the best books ever. I wanted to read more about the same universe and `Lost books of histories', he created in the Circle trilogy, but b/c of lack of time, I had decided on graphic novels in order to get quickly to the last two: Lunatic and Elyon. Unfortunately, the graphic novel was not what I expected. Drawings are not great (white bats look like cute monkeys and Teeleh is less than scary); colors are OK but the story quite childish. I don't want to offend young readers; it seems the book is geared toward youth but based on some reviews I thought adults could enjoy those stories as well. Maybe the full book is much better. Unfortunately, I bought first 4 books of that series in graphic novel form, so I am now stuck with lesser version of the story.
Dive into another world again! Many have gone over the basic plotline of this story, so I won't rehash it. I will say that this, along with the other Lost Books Series, is a great return back to the Circle Trilogy. Johnis, Silvie, Darsal and Billos lead us into an amazing adventure into the world between Black and Red. If you loved the circle trilogy, you should love these books. They are great stories and Chosen gets you right in the action starting off with a rather strange "football" game. I was hooked from the beginning and can't wait for Ted Dekker to finish out the series someday....Here's to Green being this good later this year!
A Little Thin as a Stand-Alone Book Johnis' world has been all but destroyed by a terrible plague that turned the land to desert and most of the people into the disease-ravaged Horde. Only the seven forests surrounding the seven lakes protect the Forest Dwellers from the same fate. Because of the Horde's constant attacks on the forests, the leader of the Forest Dwellers, Thomas Hunter, has been forced to lower the recruitment age for the Forest Guard to 16.
Johnis wasn't chosen to be one of the thousand new recruits to the Forest Guard -- too small for his age -- but by a twist of fate, he is chosen to lead them. When he and three other leaders set out on their final test to prove their characters, their mission takes an unexpected, but preordained turn, and Johnis discovers that his fate may already have been decided.
Parts of this book were very intriguing. I liked the world and its rules about the lake water being necessary to stave off infection from the terrible skin disease. I liked a lot of the foreshadowing. I particularly loved the little glimpses Dekker gives that this world is somehow tied to our own world, as in the following passage of a dream Johnis has:
'This wasn't the threatening man-beast, nor Horde, but Johnis couldn't breathe anyway. Something was very wrong. The man wore a shirt made from thin fabric with writing across the [...], and fitted blue pants. Leather boots -- but not the dress of a warrior.
More than his dress, the man's demeanor was out of place. Rather than walking like a skeleton in the desert, this man looked healthy. As if he'd had all the water he needed.
[...]
The man motioned to the dune behind him to the right. "There's a killer forcing us to play a game. I need you to help me find the cops. Tell them to get to the library. It's all about the library, tell them."
"Cop?" Johnis had never heard the word.'
The story insinuates that the leader of the Forest Dwellers, Thomas Hunter, is also from our world, but much to my disappointment, that story line never goes anywhere. Turns out, this is part of a much larger series, which I didn't realize until I got to the very end and saw the advertisements. The ads in the back of the book claim that you can read this series without reading the other, but it explained a lot about my biggest problems with the book: the way Dekker glosses over some of the finer details about his world (probably because he's already explained them dozens of times in his other books), the somewhat thin characterization of his protagonists.
In fact, the thing I felt while reading it was that it felt a little like fan fiction: someone was adding a new story to an already established canon, but if you weren't already part of the fandom, you would be a little lost.
I also found out after reading "Chosen" that the companion series is considered Christian fiction, but I can say right up front that other than some pretty blatant good/evil black/white imagery, I didn't see much allegory in this one in particular.
I wouldn't say you have to read the other series before picking up "Chosen," because I haven't read them myself, but I would venture it might make the book a little more nuanced. On it's own, it's a tad flat; a fun adventure quest story without much meat.
Fans of fantasy and quest novels age 12+ will enjoy this. (Some violence, but nothing very graphic or objectionable.)
Read all my reviews at thespiralnotebook.com
Read It! The army stands poised to attack. Thomas Hunter must prepare and train four more leaders to defend against the enemy outnumbering him ten to one. The game is on. the players didn't know anything about it but Thomas called it football and the winner was going to be one of the leaders.
One young man small in stature and a nonparticipant in the game undenounced to him or anyone else in the crowd ends up with the ball and takes it to the end zone.
Thomas chooses the four and one is the small young on the sidelines. Not even Thomas knew what that would lead to and the tale has just begun. The chosen one finds himself on a special mission not for Thomas but for someone he thought was no more than a mythological creature.
Between the mission, the secrecy, and following the orders of Thomas the four are whirred through a string of events that should take there life. The action never stops and the pressure never releases.
Christian Fiction writer "Trainer" Trilogy
Chosen The book started out a little slow but if you hang in there it picks up with typical Ted Dekker fashion
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