Heaven's Wager by: Ted Dekker

Series: The Martyr's Song

Published: 2000

# of pages: 369

Quote: "The phone began burping loudly in his ear. An electronic voice came on and told him in a roundabout way that holding a dead phone to the ear was a rather unbrilliant thing to do." -Kent p. 101


I started reading this book and didn't realize until I was a few chapters in that I've read it before! I remembered some of it, but I had forgotten other parts, so I kept reading it. This is one of Dekker's better novels. I love his books Blink, Three, and The Circle Trilogy. I also enjoyed Obsessed and Saint. I like how almost all of his novels connect to each other. However, I feel that some of his books were written in a hurry. Many of them don't concentrate on character development, so I feel like I don't really care what happens to the characters and it's harder to get through. But Heaven's Wager has great character development and spends a lot of time on the storyline and although it isn't one of my favorites by him, I still enjoyed reading it (both times) and recommend it to others.

This is one of the novels in The Martyr's Song Series. The series doesn't have to be read in any order, but Dekker recommends reading The Martyr's Song first, which I did. Heaven's Wager is the story of Kent Anthony, a motivated programmer, whose life drastically changes throughout the course of the novel. The changes set him on a new course as supernatural powers struggle for his soul. I liked that Dekker really shows Christianity as a lifestyle instead of preaching it as a religion. As a matter of fact, I think that this is a book that non-religious people can enjoy. It is a little more "in your face" than some of his others, but like I said, it isn't overboard. Also, I enjoyed this book because of the storyline, the "almost perfect crime, interwoven with a tale of bittersweet love" (back cover). It was pretty fascinating and I recommend this to people who want an easy read that still has depth. I also enjoyed Dekker's writing style, he has unique points of view and ways of expressing thoughts and emotions that readers feel everyday.

The only negative points were that I didn't really like the character of Helen all of the time. I felt like she was unnecessarily pushy and eccentric. So sometimes she got on my nerves, but other times I liked her just fine. Also, I thought that the pace of the story of Kent and Lacy was a little too fast. Others may not agree, but it just bothered me and I wish more time went by during the novel to make me feel better about it. Other than that, I enjoyed the experience and will definitely be reading more in this series.