Saint – Ted Dekker (The Books of the History Chrononicles; The Paradise Novels, Book 1)

Title: Saint

Series: The Books of the History Chronicles; Paradise Novels, Book 2

Author: Ted Dekker

Genre: Action, Fantasy

This is a shining example of why Dekker is one of the premier Christian authors in Christian publishing. It is nice that he has begun to cross over more and more, striving to keep his novels less “Christianized” while still retaining a more Christian perspective and interpretation of the world. Dekker writes with almost a frantic pace – I write “almost” because though the pace of the book is rather intense, it never feels hurried or rushed. Some writers can tend to get lost in the details of their story, but not Dekker, he keeps his stories moving, moving, moving, and I like that!

Colt is an assassin of unusual skill, almost superhuman in his capacity to kill. But he has no memory of who he was. The story starts with him having to kill to save his wife and son who have been kidnapped. Afterwards he awakes to find that he has no family, that the kills were only a test of his ability to perform under extreme circumstances. And the story gets a little more convoluted from there – but not overwhelmingly so, but just enough to keep you guessing.

As most of his books, this one entails a confrontation, at some level, between good and evil. Some people are more than they seem, and the reality of what is at stake goes deeper than saving the President’s life. My only irritation in the book was how Dekker was a bit vague on exactly how good triumphed over evil in the final showdown – he seemed to hint at it, but a little more specificity would have been nice.

For how degenerate the villian is, he used no profanity, which is slightly odd, in retrospect. On the other hand, Dekker does do a pretty good job of making his personifications of evil rather psychotic. The Englishman (as he was called) enjoyed finalizing conversations with himself with this interesting phrase: “Hallelujah, amen, you are dismissed.”

Though violent, the book is clear of any sexual situations or scenarios, so the violence is the primary hesitation for recommending it for readers in or below Middle School.

The book is related to Dekker’s Circle Trilogy, and falls into what is called the Paradise series, which starts with Showdown (which is referenced in this book, and several characters from it are featured herein) and ends with Sinner. All of these, along with about eight or nine other books fall under a broader ‘univerese’ of literary reality which Dekker has categorized as ‘The Books of History Chronicles.’ All that to say the book stands pretty well on its own, though having read Showdown definitely contributed to my understanding of the background and setting of the book. You don’t necessarily have to read the Circle Trilogy (though I highly, highly recommend it), but it forms a foundation for the Chronicles.

In the end I do highly recommend this book. It’s definitely worth the time to read it – and it’s not a hard read. You pick up and then realize two hours later that you should turn out the light and go to sleep. So you read ‘just a few more paragraphs’ for about a half an hour until you finally force yourself to turn out the lights…and I digress. It’s a great, fun book. I would primarily categorize it in the Action genre, but it has fantastical elements as well, so it kind of meanders it’s way into that genre near the end.

Worldview: Christian

Recommended Age: A mature middle school aged child could probably handle the subject matter, but due to the violence I would recommend high school age as the minimum.