Reviewing: Immanuel's Veins by Ted Dekker

Immanuel's Veins by Ted Dekker is a love story, without a doubt.  Taking place in a world of ball rooms and armor, vampires and heroes, the novel weaves together a tale of rescue and romance.  The novel is one of the most sexually explicit Christian love stories I've ever read.  In fact, it was banned from Holland's Christian book stores for being too sensual.  Whether Immanuel's Veins is appropriate or too promiscuous, I'll let you decide for yourself.

Summary-
Toma and his close friend, Alec, are warriors dedicated to service by their empress, Catherine the Great.  Catherine has sent them on an assignment to protect a wealthy countess and her two wild and promiscuous twin daughters, Lucine and Natasha.  Toma is instantly attracted to the more conservative of the twins, Lucine.  A group of strange Russians keep showing up at the castle, displaying bizarre abilities and an odd allure about them.  When Lucine is swept away into a darkness even she can't prevent, Toma is faced with a decision: stand his ground as a serviceman of Catherine the Great or fall into the dangerous folds of true love.

What I Liked-
I liked how Immanuel's Veins turned down the idea of Christianity being a pretty white church with stained glass windows.  When Toma entered a church in a panic, the priest turned to him and snapped something similar to, "Leave before you mess up the carpet with your muddy boots!"

What I Didn't Like-
1.) In my opinion, Immanuel's Veins was too sensual.  While one could argue that it goes into similar detail to that of Song of Solomon in the Bible, the characters are unmarried, and most are lusting rather than loving.  Immanuel's Veins treads the line between accepting the idea of sex to flaunting the lust of unmarried couples.

2.) The novel is about vampires, much to my disappointment.  In a way, I feel like Dekker conformed into the popular culture's demands by needlessly adding vampires into his story.  At times, I felt the vampire aspect made Immanuel's Veins borderline cliche and even uninteresting to me.

3.) There was little character development.  The story introduced Toma without any kind of background.  We never learned about his history, about his family, about his likes and dislikes, about his relationship with Alec, about his personality... we only learned that he was an experienced warrior who was devoted to the empress.  There was also no basis into why Toma fell in love with Lucine.  They knew each other for a few days and the reader was given even fewer conversations between them, and Toma was smitten.  It seems like Lucine's beauty was a huge influence in Toma's infatuation, which would make his love closer to "lust".  The villains actually had more character development than the protagonist of the novel.  At times, Toma was too reminiscent of Thomas Hunter from the Circle Trilogy, to the point where he actually seemed to be him in another story setting... similar name, description, etc.

4.) The plot seems rather thin for a Dekker novel.  Toma fell deeply in love with Lucine in a matter of days.  The reader was never given a chance to fall in love with the characters or witness a true relationship between them.  Immanuel's Veins also touches on pieces of Dekker's other novels, mentioning things such as Alucard and the Shataiki.  If a reader isn't already an avid fan of Dekker's work, he or she may become easily confused.  The plot moved too quickly and the ending also didn't seem resolute and impacting enough to my Dekker-novel-obsessed eyes.

5.) Most importantly, I miss the jaw-dropping sense of God's love and adoration for His children in this novel.  The idea of Toma's conversion seemed more like a cliche, typical Dekker tool to move the story along, rather than a tale of true romance between God and man.  Toma never truly seemed to meet God except in one short instance that did not linger long or in detail.  I feel like Immanuel's Veins was more focused on the romantic relationship between Lucine and Toma rather than on expressing the true impact that Christ's love could have had on Toma's life.

I Recommend This Book For-
I certainly would not recommend anyone under the age of sixteen to read Immanuel's Veins.  Anyone older than that should spend time in prayer, read my review and/or others, and decide for themselves.  The sensuality, violence, and blood-drinking play large roles in Immanuel's Veins and should be considered before read.

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I am one of Ted Dekker's biggest fans.  I've devoured every single book he's ever released to the public, and advertised them eagerly to my friends and family.  However, for the first time, I have been sorely disappointed with Dekker's work.  Immanuel's Veins seemed more like a pop culture fad rather than a brilliantly-written Dekker novel.  It's missing a decent plot, realistic characters, any kind of background, originality, and most of all... a true Christian sense to the story.

I miss the tingly feeling I always get from reading a Dekker novel.  I miss the revelation and new perspective into my relationship with God that Dekker novels usually share.

Yes, sadly, Immanuel's Veins fell short of the Dekker standard by a long shot in my eyes.  Hopefully this was one small fluke and his next novel will be a million times better.

Ted Dekker, please drop the vampire fad and move on to real literature.