Scott Couey

Photo Courtesy of Ebay

Ted Dekker is one of my favorite authors. I first discovered him by reading his book Thr3e and was immediately hooked. Several of his books have the good versus evil vibe to them and Chosen is no different. The first book in the young adult series introduces us to Johnis, Billos, Darsal, and Silvie – four teenagers who are chosen to lead the Forest Guard against the evil forces of the Horde. Thomas Hunter (supreme commander of the Forest Guard) selects these four individuals who are 16-18 years of age to find and bring back to him four large catalina cacti to prove they are worthy of him choosing them.

Along the journey they run into several roadblocks created by the Horde and the Shataiki bats. Johnis learns that he is responsible for finding the seven books of history and convincing his other three companions to help him with the task of which Thomas Hunter did not inform him. Will they return with the cacti? Will they find all seven books of history before it is too late? There are six books in this particular series (The Lost Books – consisting of Chosen, Infidel, Renegade, Chaos, Lunatic, and Elyon), but they are also a of part of the Circle Trilogy (Black, Red, and White). The Lost Book series fills in the fifteen missing years between Black and Red, but you can read either series before the other.

The book was an easy read that I thoroughly enjoyed. There is a little violence, but there is no foul language so it would be a good book for parents to let their preteen or teen read. It has sort of Lord of The Rings meets The Matrix kind of feel to it. I highly recommend Chosen and I’m looking forward to reading further into the series.