Mitch Daniels Has Done More

Whether you agree with Indiana's Republican Governor or not, there's no denying what he has accomplished.



Joe

Book Review: Chaos by Ted Dekker

Ted Dekker wraps up his Lost Books of History series -- and continues his epic saga of The Circle -- with Chaos.

CAUTION: POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD

As the chosen four -- Johnis, Billos, Silvie, and Darsal, and the Horde child they rescued, Karas -- defy the rules of the Roush and not only open the Books of History but touch the pages of the books with their blood, they find themselves no longer on Other Earth, but instead in the dry desert of a strange place called Las Vegas. Separated on their journey from Other Earth by a few mere moments, they find themselves arriving in the Earth of the Histories as much as ten years apart.

The first to arrive in the Histories, Karas and Darsal, both find themselves lost and alone in a world totally unlike Other Earth. With ten long years to struggle in the cruel world of the Histories, both Karas and Darsal follow their own paths to success, individually, all the while keeping watch for their compatriots while trying to make themselves easier to be found by the others.

We learn early on of a suspected threat to the chosen, as we witness what eventually turns out to be the Shataiki Alucard (interestingly enough, read "Dracula" in reverse) in a lair somewhere in the Histories, plotting the downfall of the chosen with as yet unknown Miranda Card.

Dekker takes us on a wild ride with Johnis and Silvie as they have their first experience with the Histories technology behind the wheel of a cherry Chevy, only to be rescued later by the very successful, now twenty-year-old Kara Longford, a.k.a. Karas.

I won't spoil the whole story for you. I won't tell you the name of the traitor that the chosen come face to face with in the closing chapters of the book. I won't tell you the fate of each of the four. I won't tell you how the Histories are affected by the invasion of the Shataiki in the form of Alucard.

What I will tell you is that this volume in The Circle epic is full of plot twists, turns, and surprises. It is nothing as I expected it would be when I first picked up Book One of the Lost Books of History. As I read it -- and I read it quite quickly -- I couldn't help but feel that Dekker was trying to quickly tie up several loose ends in the story. Like maybe the story had been heading off into other directions, and the author corralled the characters and got them back in line with where he wanted to take the story.

There's nothing wrong with that, really, but it just shouldn't feel like that's what happens when you're reading a novel. I'm an avid Ted Dekker fan, and an avid reader of Christian fiction. I'm also very drawn in to The Circle epic and would probably read another hundred offerings in the saga, if Dekker penned them out. But I must say, of the several books in this series, Chaos ranks very low on my list from best to worst.

Luckily for Dekker fans, September 2008 promises yet another offering in the saga, in the form of the long-awaited Sinner.

I promised in my review of Renegade to give you my own recommended order of reading for The Circle saga. Though the author and publisher invite you to "Enter Anywhere," and what follows is not the order in which they were published, I have read most of the books several times and, while I'm by no means an expert, I feel that they can be best followed and enjoyed by reading them in the following order.

Black
Red
Chosen
Infidel
Showdown
Renegade
White
House
Skin
Saint
Chaos
Sinner (Coming September 2008)

Just my two cents worth. I hope to work my way through the series in this order between now and the release of Sinner in September.

Joe

Just The Facts

Like it or not, these are the facts:



Vote Mitch.

Joe

Hoosiers, Vote May 6!

As the sun rises on the American Midwest tomorrow, so will it rise upon the Indiana Presidential Primary -- a primary that is essentially a formality for Republicans across the state (though there are several state and local reasons to vote).

As Senator John McCain is the "presumptive" nominee (as if Congressman Ron Paul even stands a chance of mounting a real challenge), and most of the early Republican candidates (including those which I felt more strongly about supporting) have long since dropped out of the race, voting in the Presidential Primary portion of tomorrow's election might seem useless.

You could go to the polls and throw away your vote on Congressman Ron Paul. You could toe the party line and support our eventual nominee by casting your vote for John McCain. You could fall victim to the Rush Limbaugh crowd and (because Indiana is an open primary state) cast your vote for the Democrat candidate whom you feel would be most likely to lose in November. Or, you could just sit at home and not vote at all.

Having a hard time making up your mind? Allow me to help.

First, I frankly don't care how you vote in the Indiana Presidential primary tomorrow. If you're voting Republican, it really doesn't matter for whom you vote, as Senator McCain already has it locked up. If you're throwing away your vote on a Democrat in hopes of making a Republican victory in November easier, shame on you. Do you really want to be responsible for helping the worst Democrat win the White House should something happen between now and election day that makes John McCain unable to run? Really, a Democrat is bad enough, but the worst Democrat, well, that's just unbearable (remember Bill Clinton, or Jimmy Carter?).

How you vote tomorrow in the Presidential Primary is not important at all. That you vote is of paramount importance! The very act of going to the poll and casting a ballot for the candidate of your choice without fear of reprisal is what makes this country America. It is not a right that was given to us. It is a right that red-blooded Americans throughout history have fought and died for. It is a right that we can defend in one of two ways: 1) defend it by exercising it -- vote every time the polls are open; 2) lose it by not using it, then risk your life fighting to get it back.

Not only is voting your blood-earned right, it is your patriotic duty! Just as those who have died to establish and defend the freedom that we enjoy in this country did so in answer to the call of duty, as an American, it is your duty to make the trip to the polls and cast a ballot on election day. It is what freedom is all about.

"But don't I have the freedom not to vote?" you might ask. Of course you do. You have the freedom not to vote. You have the freedom not to serve. You have the freedom not to defend. You have the freedom to sit back and watch while the strong prevail and the weak fail. You have the freedom to have your say, cast your vote, and be one of the strong. Or you have the freedom to sit back, uninvolved, uninterested, and be one of the weak.

You have the freedom to succeed, or fail. What will you choose?

Joe

Read more at RedState.com.

For more on the Indiana candidates, visit VictoryBloggers

Toshiba Computer Heading Out Tomorrow

Just a quick update on the Toshiba fiasco.

Guy Lugo, so far, has been true to his word. An empty box arrived today, with a UPS prepaid ARS label to send my Toshiba notebook computer back to Toshiba in Irvine, California, for them to repair it. It's out of warranty by about two and a half months, but because I had the problem very well documented over the past several months, he says that he'll take care of the repairs at no cost to me.

A shocker, I know. Now that I have a new Sony Vaio notebook, which is much, much, much better than the Toshiba, I don't know what I'll do with it when it is returned repaired. Hopefully first I'll recover my data from the hard drive, then either sell it or give it to my four-year old son.

Yeah, really, my four-year old son. He is surprisingly computer literate. You would have to see it to believe it.

Joe

Familiarty = Contempt?

Today's Daily Soap {Scripture | Observation | Application | Prayer}

• S: 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 (MSG)
  
• O: In church this evening, the message was on the Communion. The Master, Jesus, on the night of his betrayal, took bread. Having given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body, broken for you. Do this to remember me." After supper, he did the same thing with the cup: "This cup is my blood, my new covenant with you. Each time you drink this cup, remember me." What you must solemnly realize is that every time you eat this bread and every time you drink this cup, you reenact in your words and actions the death of the Master. You will be drawn back to this meal again and again until the Master returns. You must never let familiarity breed contempt.
  
• A: Our church partakes of Communion every Sunday. This can sometimes make the practice seem mechanical, and it can become very easy to forget what Communion is all about. Especially when Communion is taken individually rather than as a group, served by the passing of the serving dishes, as it was done once monthly in the Baptist church in which I was brought up. And if you have kids in church with you, and they see you eating crackers and drinking grape juice, they want some, too. It is all too easy to allow the ritual practice of something such as Communion to become meaningless to us. Have you ever really thought of just what that cracker (unleavened bread, actually) and cup of grape juice signify? Have you given consideration to not just the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, but also the humiliating beating he suffered prior to being lead to Golgotha? The shredding of skin on his back as he was lashed with a whip. The blood spilled in the street before he was even nailed to the cross. And, of course, the brutal nailing of spikes through his wrists and feet, pinning him to the cross. His very suffering and death that led to our salvation. The bread: His Body. The cup: His Blood. The final sacrifice for our sins: His Life for ours. If you feel up to a compelling yet graphic depiction of Christ's suffering, try The Passion of the Christ.
  
• P: Father, Thank You not only for what You did for me, to save me from my sins, but also for providing me with a constant reminder of the cost You paid so that I won't have to.
  

Download the sermon audio here.

Send feedback to Joe by email, or by calling 206-600-4JOE.

Book Review: Renegade by Ted Dekker

The Circle is never ending. A fully enclosed line -- no beginning, no end. The Circle goes ever onward. Such could be said of Ted Dekker's epic saga of The Circle.

An epic saga that began with the releases of Black, Red, and White, and now encompasses eight other volumes, with volume twelve, Sinner, slated for release in September of this year.

This saga, as well, crosses several subgenres of the Christian fiction world. While the original three offerings are clearly fantasy, Showdown, House (with Frank Peretti), and Skin could just as easily be labeled as tales of horror, while Saint is more thriller than fantasy. The latest four volumes, subtitled The Books of History Chronicles, are marketed as fantasy and youth fiction, but the most likely link I can find to youth fiction is the age of the main characters in the books. Chosen, Infidel, Renegade and Chaos should appeal to every fan of Ted Dekker fiction as much as any of Dekker's other works.

I should maybe have considered writing one single review for all four of The Lost Books, as they could just as easily have been published in one volume as four. You can find my thoughts on Chosen and Infidel, as well as every other book review I've written, in the review archives at AverageJoeAmerican.us.

For now I want to talk about The Lost Books Volume 3, Renegade.

In Renegade, Dekker returns to his story-telling prowess, after what I felt was much groundwork being laid in the prior installment. In addition, in Renegade, we are sent back to the town of Paradise, Colorado, where we first met Marsuvees Black in Showdown. Paradise, Colorado, is a town that receives much similar treatment as that of Stephen King's Castle Rock, Maine, in Needful Things. That's a very fitting comparison, despite the polar opposites of the genre, as Ted Dekker is very much the skilled and visionary author that Stephen King once was (unfortunately, I fear the King exhausted his resources around the time that Desperation and The Regulators were published).

We learn so much more about Marsuvees Black and Paradise, Colorado, in Renegade that, if you haven't read at least Showdown prior to reading The Lost Books series, you, yourself, might be lost in the story. As Dekker, in the past, has woven the several Circle books together quite nicely, Renegade made me feel that the author was stretching prior story lines just a bit to bring all of the characters together once again. Fortunately, that's what the business of writing fiction is about, and Ted Dekker does it quite nicely.

As an avid Ted Dekker fan, and someone who has read the saga that surrounds The Circle several times over, I found Renegade to be the best so far of The Lost Books offerings. It can be quite difficult, at times, for fans of fiction when they reach the end of a book. I cannot count the number of times that I have found myself so engrossed in a book -- so in tune with the setting and the characters -- that I was nearly devastated when the story finally ended because the characters had become such an important part of my life. Ted Dekker has done an exceptional job keeping Other Earth alive and well for fans of The Circle.

Though the publisher promotes the series as:

TWO REALITIES
ONE EPIC EXPERIENCE
ENTER ANYWHERE

it isn't quite that easy. I don't believe you can just dive in anywhere and receive the most benefit from the worlds this author has created. I will, in my next review in this series (Chaos) present to you what I feel is the best order in which to read the several works that comprise the world of The Circle. If you haven't started yet, and you want to dive into the world of The Circle before then, might I suggest the most logical starting place: Black -- where it all began.

Joe