Mortal by Ted Dekker and Tosca Lee

Description:

Centuries have passed since civilization's brush with apocalypse. The world's greatest threats have all been silenced. There is no anger, no hatred, no war. There is only perfect peace...and fear. A terrible secret was closely guarded for centuries: every single soul walking the earth, though in appearance totally normal, is actually dead, long ago genetically stripped of true humanity.

Nine years have gone by since an unlikely hero named Rom Sebastian first discovered a secret and consumed an ancient potion of blood to bring himself back to life in Forbidden. Surviving against impossible odds, Rom has gathered a secret faction of followers who have also taken the blood-the first Mortals in a world that is dead.

But The Order has raised an elite army to hunt and crush the living. Division and betrayal threaten to destroy the Mortals from within. The final surviving hope for humanity teeters on the brink of annihilation and no one knows the path to survival.

On the heels of Forbidden comes MORTAL, the second novel in The Books of Mortals saga penned by Ted Dekker and Tosca Lee. Set in a terrifying, medieval future, where grim pageantry masks death, this tale of dark desires and staggering stakes peels back the layers of the heart for all who dare take the journey.

The Books of Mortals are three novels, each of which stands on its own, yet all are seamlessly woven into one epic thriller.

My Opinion:

I so wish I could say this book was well worth the read, since the first one was such a good book. However, this one lacked the luster that the previous one had. Nothing stood out to me that would make me rethink the way I walk with God. I think this book had the potential to make me rethink the way I live, if the people in the story would have talked in plain English so I could have understood them thoroughly. Instead, the characters talked about things that seemed quite important, but said it in ways that just zoomed right over my head!


On top of that, most of their actions were a bit crazy! I knew going into the novel that Ted Dekker's characters are usually out of the norm and seem to be a bit mental, but usually their is a reason behind that. In this book it just seemed unnecessary, and their actions went far beyond how they acted in Forbidden. I don't think a persons personality and the way they speak is going to completely change in a few years, in that case ever.


Furthermore, a lot of this story was repetitive. I felt like I was having deja-vu, but NO, they just kept on having the same conversations! ***SPOILER*** "Is Jonathon the savior? Or his blood?", "They have 12,000 Dark Bloods, we have 1,200 Mortals. How are we going to defeat them?" It just seemed like a whole bunch of planning, instead of taking action, which their was very little of!


Most of the characters had terrible morals, even the Mortals. Their was a scene where, even though not terribly long, it showed how sexual and unscrupulous they, being the mortals, were. I was most of all mad at the leader of the mortals... Concubines? Are we really going back to that? This man was supposed to show honor, respect, and most of all LEADERSHIP! So now he's condoning sexual behavior that's NOT between a man and a wife??? I know people had concubines in the bible, but it also clearly states in the bible that it is a SIN!


And here is the thing that peeved me off the most. ***Spoiler*** Triphon was thrown around like he did not matter and like he wasn't an important character! He was killed, so he didn't get much 'screen time', then he was brought back to life just to be killed again, and then he CAME BACK TO LIFE AGAIN! (BTW, his deaths were so horribly done I couldn't even get emotional about them, even though he is my favorite character! I just got furious because, even if he was to die, they didn't even try to give him a memorable death!) All I can say is that if he dies in Sovereign, and they don't give him the 'screen time' or memorable death he deserves, then I don't know what I will do. That might just ruin the whole book for me right there.


I am sad to say that I would recommend skipping this book if you are reading the series. It's not worth the read in my opinion, which is a complete shocker based just upon who wrote it. This was not at all what I was expecting for a sequel, and I am extremely disappointed.


Stars: 2