A couple of days ago I promised to bury myself in a good book. I did indeed do that and have now risen, definitely not unchanged. (In spite of my rebel resistance to the sticker on the cover advertising it to be a life-changing book.)
Now I am pondering. Do I want to change my designated all-time favorite story? Yes and no.
Yes, because this book is that good.
No, because it is really only part of my favorite story, the gemstone to be placed in the gold setting of my favorite ring ... story.
Of all the fiction books in the world, this is the one I most recommend you read, and it is a stand-alone story. However, like a priceless gem, it will be more beautiful if it is viewed in a gold setting. Therefore, I recommend you read it after/along with reading several other books.
Immanuel's Veins, by Ted Dekker.
I bought it the first day it was out, but I waited to read it, for much the same reason I paused after reading the first page of The Hobbit. I realized that after I had read it, it would be read. I would never again be able to read it for the first time. The reviews for IV were so raving fanatic, I knew it was going to be really good.
My previous favorite fiction book was Black, by Ted Dekker. It isn't really a stand-alone book, since it stops in the middle of a cliffhanger, and continues on in Red. But it was my favorite because of one scene, the one where Thomas dives into the lake and meets Elyon.
Black, Red, White, and Green form the Circle series, and that story is truly a circle, but also The Circle was an organization in the story, a group of people known in the beginning as the Forest Guard, led by Thomas of Hunter. Black starts with Tom Hunter, who time/location travels to a different earth and becomes Thomas of Hunter. In Immanuel's Veins, he is known as Saint Thomas, the beast hunter.
So it's really all one story. There's a lot of reading to get all of this story, and Ted is probably adding to it as we speak ... read. Besides the four books in the Circle series, there are the six lost books, the Paradise books -- especially Showdown, Skin, and now Immanuel's Veins.
This broad, winding story seems to me now to have been lacking one thing, one facet of the gemstone in the gold ring. The scene in the lake provided one facet of the gem, the experience of being loved. Immanuel's Veins is the other side of the story, how it was/is to love. Together they flash the fiery glints of an exquisitely beautiful jewel in the light of life.
