Review: Intriguing Beginning
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 12, 2013
QUICK HIT - Ted Dekker's latest is the first part of a serialized novel that begins a whole new journey that focuses on the question of identity.Christy Snow has lost her identity. She has no recollection of life before age thirteen and is orphaned. She wears a locket around her neck with a stock photograph of strangers on the inside. It represents hope. It represents a hope she will find her parents and discover who she really is. Really, this locket is her identity. And she's lost it.The search for the locket takes her into a hospital warehouse and into some serious danger. She escapes, but only into greater confusion and chaos as she is mistaken for a psych ward inmate. When her friend, Austin, comes looking for her, he too is becomes entangled in the mystery. Austin's a few years older than Christy with the same story. Orphaned. No recollection of life before age 13. Incredibly intelligent.But what is true and what is false? Who are Christy and Austin? They each search for their identities in their own way--Christy through a desire for relationship with family, Austin through a desire to know everything. But is that the truth? Identity begins Austin and Christy's journey by throwing into question everything they have known...and this is only the beginning.In Identity, Ted Dekker has brought his trademark of difficult questions meets powerful plot meets frenetic action to a different type of storytelling. It's the first part of a four part serial collection, which is in turn the beginning of a whole new Dekker series. As such, the seventy-five or so pages given here merely set up the story for what's to come. The characters are introduced, hints are given (if you've theories, tell me in the comments), and the trouble begun.It's a quick read that'll leave you desperate for more...and like all good dealers, Ted's got the kind of good stuff I need in ready supply. While my initial understanding of the series was that Ted would stretch it out over the course of 2013, Eyes Wide Open, of which Identity is part one, has been released in installments over the past few weeks. Mirrors is already out. Unseen releases today. Seer on January 14. And the whole shebang as a print version on February 4.