Elyon (The Lost Books, #6) By Ted Dekker
I really liked the first four, but these last two weren’t my favorite of his. Still good, but just not as powerful of a message as the others. The vampire stuff was pretty weird and didn’t quite fit in as part of the lost books. It only made sense to me a little because I had already read Immanuel’s Veins and Green, but if I hadn’t I would definitely be confused as to how the vampires even relate to the story. If he was going to throw them into the story, it would have been nice to have a bit more back story about the river and the blue forest. Plus, since this one was called Elyon, I was expecting more of an encounter with him at the end or him defeating the Shataiki or something. But overall, I liked the series as a whole. Definitely didn’t end how I expected it to, but I don’t think any of Ted Dekker’s books ever do, and I like that about his writing. 9781598595314 This book moved me so much. It was another example to me, the whole series, to see how God works terrible, very wrong things to good. At the end I almost cried it was so moving and gave me joy. 9781598595314 2.6 unresolved stars.
As the last book in the Lost Book series I am disappointed, and well, lost. I spent a lot of time on six books just to be let down by the ending. I don’t understand why nothing was culminated. Like, for example, how Johnis of all people is the “chosen one”. I really thought I would finally understand, but alas.
The last installment in the series is a continuation of the same plot as the previous book. Darsal is on a mission to save Marak, the Horde, the albinos, and Johnis and Silvie by convincing those close to her to drown in the red lakes. Meanwhile, Johnis is still possessed by the Leedhan and is leading a troop to control all the shataiki with a magical medallion that can defeat the Horde and albinos once and for all.
I had a hard time following this book. I didn’t know where we were or what to imagine in my head, and I don’t think the plot was explained well enough. What was this great sacrifice they were trying to make at Ba’al Bek? And why? Maybe I missed something in the text, but there were so many places I would ask myself, why? It was virtually constant action with no understanding of where the narrative was going. It felt unnecessarily heavy.
And then there’s the lost books of history. The whole series is named after these books, and yet they become nothing. What was the purpose of these books? The last two books took a turn that went downhill for me. The first five books were really interesting and I loved the ending. But then the entire purpose of these lost books was lost when they arrived back in Middle.
And nothing frustrates me more than Johnis’s entire arc. Darsal is the one who saves everyone. It was her who brought everyone to all seven of the lost books where they all vanished to the other world. It was her who spent ten long grueling years on earth. It was her who spent that decade with the vilest of evil creatures and who actually found the greater good in the end. It was her actions and morals that saved everyone from evil on earth. It was her with the famous hero arc. Not Johnis. Never Johnis. He was always there to make rash decisions because he was “following his heart”. He treated Silvie like she was beneath him (and everyone else for that matter), and he never got over his big “you must follow me to Hell and back because me big hero” ego. AND THEN, when all three of them return to Middle, it was Darsal who drowned first. Darsal who got the message from Elyon, “love the Horde for me, for Johnis.” And she did! It was her the whole time, in all six of these books, it was Darsal who saved everyone. Not Johnis. Johnis got himself possessed by a vampire. Where did this heart of his go now? Silvie was the only one with any sense to question the hallucinations of a mysterious hypnotic woman. Ugh. I’m sorry, but this final book really frustrates me. Nothing was resolved.
We never got to meet another circle member like Thomas or any of their family, we don’t even know where they were hiding this whole time. What happened to Thomas? What happens to the Leedhans? And how many of these vampires are there anyway?
And don’t get me started on Darsal and Marak’s romance. It was similar to Johnis and Silvie where there was no lead up to the romance or even reason besides the fact that Dekker is telling us that they are romantically invested now. This is where show don’t tell is so important. People don’t just fall in love with people they find repulsive and can’t stand the smell of. Marak had no redeeming qualities. He was a mean old man who killed his family including his supposed love of his life, Rona. There needed to be more character development here.
At least Darsal was cool.
I can’t really recommend this book when I’m so frustrated by it, but at the same time, it is the final book in a decent series. Read at your own risk and don’t expect a grand ending.
3 stars for entertainment
3 stars for impact
3 stars for writing
2 stars for pace/organization
2 stars recommendation
=2.6 stars. 9781598595314 Overall this series is not worth reading. They started out ok but eventually gave me a headache with all the different things going on. Like the vampire in the 5th book. That seemed so random and not at all relevant to the previous books. Bad theology and the writing style was juvenile. Donita King and L.B. Graham do a much better job at allegory. 9781598595314 2020 Book Nerd Your Way Challenge.... #31
Did not fit an available category for the EBN Challenge.
Book #6 of The Lost Books series. Here comes the conclusion of the series. Or is it only the end of one adventure and the beginning of another. I love the way the Author ended the book and brought the story to a new start. I am going to have to check out the other books and see if he carried this forward. 9781598595314
New York Times best-selling author Ted Dekker revisits the universe of his half-million selling Circle Trilogy with the continuation of this popular YA series--and brings along a member of The Circle as his coauthor.
Darsalis trying to love the Horde as Elyon asked her to, but she's torn between this new mission and her original one . . . especially now that Johnis and Silvie no longer seem to be on her side.
The Chosen Ones are facing their greatest threat--extinction--and only by Elyon's grace will they survive to tell the tale.
What I dislike the most about this 6 book series is the fact that the series would have been just fine with 4 books. The last 2 were almost painful.
And I get that the author wanted to spell out CIRCLE with each of the books (which I didn't pick up on until a few books in) but the LE of the circle didn't have the same feel as the first 4 books.
There was more evil, and I get that it had to show that part for the final 'showdown' but I thought this book was so filled with evil it was almost overbearing.
On a funny note, I was reading and dropped the book. I lost my page. I picked up the book and tried to find where I left off. I continued reading only to find out I actually skipped almost 60 pages... and I couldn't even tell. There was no break in the plot... not actually funny... more sad.....
I will continue to read this author but the CIRCLE series will not be on the top of my list. 9781598595314 Elyon is the (currently) final book in the Lost Books series, though these last two books have almost nothing to do with the Lost books themselves, or for that matter, the story that unfolded in the first 4 books at all. The 4 book arc that started pretty well and ended very well is followed up by this 2 book mini-arc which follows Johnis, Silvie and Darcal back into Middle, but 5 years later after the horde has taken over the forests and Thomas Hunter and the circle are on the run or in hiding.
While this book was a slight step up from Lunatic in terms of writing, it was really bogged down by several problems that make me think there wasn't nearly enough work that went into putting this story together. Almost all the humor is gone and replaced with a dark, oppressive tone with satanic forces constantly attacking the group from all sides. While there was a fair amount of action, the narrative was not very well done in places and the story was hard to follow from time to time. Also detracting from the story is 2 out of the 3 main characters were not written anything like they were in the previous 4 books so I didn't even recognize them. Granted, in this last book they were not only scabs, but also heavily under vampiric/demonic possession, but still, there wasn't even a hint of who they used to be. Even worse, Darcal and Marak's story is a complete and blatant retread of Thomas and Chelise's romance in White, but not nearly as well written so that really hurt the book as well.
Really, all in all these two books should have probably been given quite a bit more work or told a different story because they're pretty anti-climactic compared to the first 4 books or the rest of the circle series. While the writing in places was pretty compelling and the action pretty intense, the story was so sloppy that it made it difficult to really get into. The completest in me compelled me to read these last two books despite some pretty negative reviews of the last two books and after reading them, I tend to agree that by and large, they are not well written. They're not quite the 1 star far that some of the reviews have made them out to be either, but they certainly aren't Ted's best works. Read them in you need to complete the series, but lower your expectations and critical thinking skills before you go into it and just enjoy the books as best as you can. 9781598595314 Worst of the Lost Books series. Really hate that, I enjoyed the first 5. 9781598595314 Dekker is on of my favorite authors and I enjoyed the beginning of the lost book series. But I wanted to throw this book across the room. The plot line was annoying, repetitive, and seemed to have no clear direction; Darsal's mandate to Love the Horde was not well played; the guidance of the Roush was extremely poor; and the end was somewhat ridiculous leaving you feeling like they took the worst path possible to solve the dilemma. Perhaps this venture in co-authoring these last two books was a poor choice since the story seemed to go downhill starting with Lunatic. The only reason I even finished this book is because I was already invested in the series by reading the first 5 books and wanted to see how it ended. Looking back, I would have preferred to stop after the 4th book and call it good. And what's more, to call this book Elyon is almost a travesty. It should be called Deception, or Stupidity. 9781598595314 I do not really know what to say about these books. The action was cool and some of the concepts were great, but the whole plot of the series was weird. I am not sure what Ted Dekker was trying to get across to his readers. 9781598595314
