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.
Review:
And so Dekker has returned to allegorical fantasy/sci-fi in the vein of The Circle. Good idea? In theory, yes, in practice, no. The allegorical parallels are exactly the same as in The Circle, so all he's really doing retelling The Circle in a different setting. The lack of originality was very disappointing. Forbidden at least was a bit different, though it had me a bit nervous, but this is like Red (from The Circle) all over again. The other main thing I didn't like was the lack of character development in this book. Rom (the protagonist of the previous book) and Jonathan (who was just a boy in the previous book) have changed so much, they need to be redeveloped, but that doesn't happen. Many new major characters such as Roland (Prince of the Nomads) aren't developed properly either. Even Saric (the antagonist of the previous book) who hasn't changed all that much, feels flat and stiff. It gives the whole character aspect of the book an annoying 2 dimensional feel. The only (new) character in the whole book that's really well developed is Jordin (Jonathan's love interest). Another minor annoyance (beyond the fact that they just changed the name of Rome to Byzantium - stupid because Byzantium was 'the second Rome' in history, so it's kinda pointless...) was the implausibility of the idea that the Mortals and Dark Bloods (the two groups in conflict in the novel) could both just waltz into Byzantium and do whatever they wanted - especially how the Dark Bloods so quickly take over. It just feels a little hard to believe. Mortal wasn't all bad though. The action and suspense were quite intense, a quick pace was maintained all through it, and so I would consider said elements to be quite well done.
Overall, a good story with some character development issues. If Dekker had never written The Circle I would probably have loved it and given it a 4 or 5 star rating - the writing is about the same quality, but it's disappointingly unoriginal on the second go round. I would recommend this to any fans of sci-fi/fantasy or suspense, though I would suggest you read EITHER this OR The Circle, NOT both.
3.5/5 stars
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