Oh, and normally people save the best for last but I can't, this is one of the BEST books ever written... ever. (Not counting the Bible, of course)
Immanuel's Veins
In the fictional tale, Immanuel’s Veins, author Ted Dekker
explores the reason for the Cross in a roundabout way. Although I have had
great pleasure in reading Dekker’s other novel’s, I thoroughly enjoyed this story better than any other I have read. The amazingly weaved plot,
spectacular imagery, and the
presentation of the gospel are the work of master wordsmith.
Immanuel’s Veins takes place in
Moldavia, in the late 1700s, following the character Toma Nicolescu and his
companion. Toma is a soldier in Catherine the Great’s army and has been sent
with his companion, Alek Cardei, to guard the Cantemir sisters. Against orders,
Toma falls in love with Lucine, one of the sisters, but struggles between love
and duty, knowing that he must fulfill the latter. Then, a suitor, Vlad van
Valerik seeks Lucine’s hand, but neither she, nor Toma, feels comfortable
around him. But, as Lucine feelings toward Vlad change, Toma is left at war
with himself. Knowing that he loves her, he questions his motives for trying to
expose Vlad. Is it jealousy or duty that is prodding him? What will he do now?
Many
of Ted Dekker’s books are dark. When asked about this, he said, “When you are
trying to reach a culture that has watered down the line between good and evil,
you need to paint evil with a very dark brush,” and Immanuel’s Veins doesn’t part
from this trend. The plot doesn’t take as many twists and turns as he is known
for writing, but that doesn’t make it inferior to his other novels. He uses both
first and third person as he penned this masterpiece. The descriptions he presents are well-worded
and not trite, “…now hot fingers snaked through her body, tingling and burning
along her wounds, and then, deeper, through her veins to her extremities like
molten lava finding its way through cracks and down narrow channels. It burned
her fingers and her toes and it made her face hot.” Combined with these two
elements of professional story writing, he presented the gospel as well, “All
of the blood sacrifices, which I had always considered barbarous, suddenly made
sense. That blood, however symbolic on the altar, had true power as much as
evil had manifested itself in the blood of this beast. Surely this is why the
Christ had bled out on that cross of torture. Not for a religion, not for
Christianity or orthodoxy, but for the heart of man.”
In
conclusion, it is in my opinion that Immanuel’s
Veins is a masterpiece composed of epic plot, skillful description, and
beautiful gospel. I believe that it will become a classic among Christians, if
not the world.
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