How to Read Ted Dekker’s Books

Ted Dekker is one of the best authors ever. I often get asked which book to start with and what is the best order to read his books. These are somewhat complicated to answer because over half of his books are connected – some loosely, some very closely. So, here’s my attempt at answering all of these questions. There’s a lot of information here, so I’ll try to put the key points in bold.

First, I’ll start with a list of his novels. My top 4 favorite books are starred (I tried to do top 3 or top 5, but I just couldn’t choose because they’re all so good!)

• Books of History Chronicles
  • The Circle Series
    • Black
    • Red
    • White*
    • Green
  • The Paradise Series
    • Showdown
    • Saint*
    • Sinner
  • The Lost Books Series
    • Chosen
    • Infidel
    • Renegade
    • Chaos
    • Lunatic
    • Elyon
  • The Books of Mortals Series
    • Forbidden
    • Mortal
    • Sovereign
  • The Outlaw Chronicles
    • Eyes Wide Open*
    • Outlaw
    • Water Walker
    • Hacker
  • Books not connected to a specific series
    • Skin
    • House
    • Immanuel’s Veins
• Caleb Series
  • Blessed Child
  • A Man Called Blessed
• Heaven Series
  • The Martyr’s Song
  • When Heaven Weeps
  • Heaven’s Wager
  • Thunder of Heaven
• Stand alone books / book pairs
  • Blink* (also known as Blink of an Eye)
  • Three
  • Obsessed
  • Kiss / Burn
  • A.D. 30 / A.D. 33
  • Boneman’s Daughters
  • The Priest’s Graveyard / The Sanctuary
  • Adam
  • The Bride Collector

A quick note on how I started reading his books – I started with Blink. Next, I read Three followed by Black, Red, and White. After that, it all depended on what books I found on my mom’s bookshelf, what books the local bookstore had, and when the books came out (I started around 2007). Here is a list of Ted Dekker’s books in the order they were released. Note that there are some books that are not on my list. In my list, I only included fiction books that were not a part of some sort of special/limited or online-only release.

Okay, now let’s move on to how to start reading Ted Dekker books. I suggest starting with Blink. Blink was re-released as Blink of an Eye, but it’s the same book. This book gives you a good introduction to Ted Dekker’s style. It’s a great story and has some strange/supernatural elements, but it’s fairly easy to follow. It has some suspense/mystery, but it’s not too stressful. This is the first Ted Dekker book I read and it is still one of my favorites.

The Caleb Series, The Heaven Series, and the books listed under “Stand alone books / book pairs” can be read at any time. A quick note on the Heaven Series – read The Martyr’s Song first, then the other three can be read in any order. Some of Ted Dekker’s books can be somewhat dark and creepy. I’d classify these books as thrillers: Three, Obsessed, Boneman’s Daughters, The Priest’s Graveyard, The Sanctuary, Adam, and The Bride Collector. The other ones aren’t quite as creepy. Out of the thrillers, I really like Three and Obsessed, so I would suggest that these be the first thrillers you read from that list. As I said, any of these books can be read in any order at any time, it all just depends on your taste in books.

Now for the tricky part – The Books of History Chronicles. These books cover a wide range of genres. Some are intense thrillers, some are more fantasy, some include lots of allegory, some are suspense/mystery, and some involve traveling between different, but connected worlds. It takes a bit to get used to it all. But don’t let this stop you, because I absolutely love reading these books and figuring out how they are all connected. Technically, all of the series within the Books of History Chronicles can be read in any order. I’m going to list here the order that I prefer in order to get all the background for each series. The background information isn’t always necessary, but you’ll appreciate the story more with the background.

The first place to start in the Books of History is The Circle Series – Black, Red, White, and Green. Start with Black, then go to Red, then White, and if you wish, continue to Green. The weird thing is that Green is not only a sequel to White, but it is a prequel to Black. Although you can read Green before Black, I suggest waiting until after you read White. Green is also somewhat darker than the other three and it isn’t completely necessary to understand the rest of the Books of History Chronicles, so you can skip it if you wish. Green came out a few years after Black, Red, and White. So, it is fine to not read Green right away.

Next, read The Paradise Series – Showdown, Saint, and Sinner in that order. Showdown is the creepiest of these books, but it introduces you to important characters and concepts for the other books. Again, you can technically read these three books in any order, but I like reading them in chronological order.

Follow this up by reading House and Skin. These books are somewhat intense, and I would say they are thrillers. Especially House – Ted Dekker co-wrote this book with Frank Peretti, who is also known for intense, supernatural thrillers. The Showdown Series introduces you to the villain Marsuvees Black, and in House and Skin you meet his counterparts – Barsidious White and Sterling Red.

To help tie things together, read The Lost Books Series (in the order listed in the outline). These are young adult books that chronologically start between Black and Red. They will revisit the worlds of The Circle Series and Skin. If you look closely, you’ll also see some deeper connections with Skin. These books aren’t as intense, but there are a lot of connections with other series.

Now, read Immanuel’s Veins, Forbidden, Mortal, and Sovereign. Immanuel’s Veins is very loosely connected to the other books, so you can read it at pretty much anytime. Forbidden, Mortal, and Sovereign should be read in that order, but again, the connections with the other series are not very strong. Basically, make sure you read The Circle Series (Black, Red, White, and maybe Green) before you read these books.

Finish up by reading the Outlaw Series. These books can be read at anytime, but it’s best to read them at least after The Paradise Series (which means you should read Black, Red, and White before you read these books, too). I read them in the order from the outline, but there is some flexibility in the order. I would suggest, though, that you read Eyes Wide Open before you read Water Walker or Hacker. Outlaw gives the background of a character you meet in Eyes Wide Open, but you can read any of the books without reading Outlaw. Eyes Wide Open is another one of my favorites.

As you can probably tell from this, the most central books in The Books of History Chronicles are The Circle Series and The Paradise Series. You can definitely read the other series without reading these, but these two series provide most of the foundation and background for the other books. So if you do think that some of the other series sound more interesting to you, it’s okay to read them without reading all of the other series!

That’s it! If anyone reading this has any questions or suggestions on improving this, please let me know! I’ll do my best to update this list as new books come out.

Good luck, happy reading, and dive deep.

Top Left: Meeting Ted Dekker in Grand Rapids for his book tour for The Sanctuary. Middle and Bottom Left: Meeting Ted Dekker in Ann Arbor for his Outlaw Tour. Right: Me in fall 2015 with all of Ted Dekker’s novels.