Chosen (Dekker novel)

General Information

The Cover for Chosen
Author	Ted Dekker
Cover artist	Tim Green
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	The Lost Books
Genre	Young adult fantasy
Published	2007 (Thomas Nelson Publishing)

Chosen was written by Ted Dekker and was released on December 15, 2007. It is the first young adult novel in the new Lost Book series. These novels span the fifteen-year period that is omitted in the Circle Trilogy's Black and Red. Thomas Hunter is still the commander of the Forest Guard when these stories occur. Johnis, Silvie, Billos, and Darsal are selected by Thomas Hunter to be the new leaders of the Forest Guard. Johnis is separated from the other three members, and stumbles upon the legendary Roush. The Roush give Johnis, and the other three members of his party, a new task. He must find the seven missing Books of History. Johnis discovers that he was chosen by Elyon to find and complete the prophecy that a boy will find the Books. This task begins the Lost Books series.

Chosen is a book created by Ted Dekker. It is in the Circle series, and Elyon, (God) lost many of the forest to Teeleh (Satan). Evil is seeming to win, and the Horde, a group of humans with rotting flesh (the devil’s minions) are taking over much of the Forest. Thomas Hunter needs to raise an army of over 10,000 Forest Guard to stop the Horde. The general of the Horde is Qurong, and he wants to vanquish all seven forests and destroy all the water loving humans. Qurong has been supplied with information from a traitor of the Forest Guard. The traitor insists that the enemy Guard is building their forces rapidly, and Qurong insists that they are nothing important. Qurong’s major disagrees, telling him that the young are very crafty and aren’t to be taken lightly at all. However, Qurong has the Forest Guard tricked, since the Guard thinks they will attack from the East, and the Guard is putting many of their forces there. He, however is going in from the West, and will annihilate the Guard and take them by surprise. The Horde will attack within four days, and the Guard has to be ready to fight them and win at all costs. Meanwhile, in the Forest, a dozen of the strongest recruits are going to play a game Thomas Hunter called football. This game called football was from Hunter’s dream of some other land. The football was Horde hair, and that hair was given to Thomas by Johnis’ father, Ramos. Johnis’ mother was killed while going out in the desert to go look for a medicine for Johnis, who was struck with a fever. She went without an escort, and she was presumed dead. Ramos, in an outrage, goes out to the desert and kills several Scabs (members of the Horde) in a fit of anger, and takes their hair and ties it up and gives it to Thomas. Johnis hadn’t recovered from that incident, and he went and tried out to be a Forest Guard. However, he was dismissed because of his size. So Johnis went and sat on the sidelines. He watched the teams play football, 12 people on each team, and armed with sticks. When football started, Silvie was the first one to go and get the ball. Then, the lines of the football teams collided with their sticks hitting each other. Jackov, then swung at Silvie, but she ducked and he then, the ball flew up in the air, and into the mess of people attacking each other. Then, the ball came out of the pile of people attacking each other, and it rolled towards Johnis. Johnis hides the ball around his waist, and then Thomas called everyone to stop. He promised a horse to whoever found his Horde ball. Thomas knew already that Johnis had the ball, but he was trying to make a point. Many people weren’t doing anything, but Jackov tried to find the ball, but he couldn’t until Johnis shows him the ball. They fight, and Jackov is on his knees. Then, the crowd cheers wildly for Johnis. Thomas Hunter then chooses four people to lead the Guard, they are Billos, Silvie, Darsal, and surprisingly, Johnis, who doesn’t know what to say, but eventually agrees and says yes to the calling. After the choosing, the Chosen ride out into the desert. Johnis had to get food, which included taro root, sago cakes, and fruits. As they were riding they heard the noise of something unusual, and Johnis saw a figure with red eyes with wings. Johnis thought he had seen a Shaitaiki. Then the group rode on quickly, but they were arguing. All of a sudden, they saw some of the Scabs. Johnis, once again, had second thoughts about becoming one of the chosen ones. The four eventually killed all 5 of them. After that, they came to Igal point. You could see so much from that point. As they were talking along the way, Silvie’s horse then smelled something weird. There was at least 20 Horde, and Johnis could say only one thing, and that was to run. As Johnis was fleeing, he heard something say “This way! Over here!” It was a fuzzy white bat creature. He followed the creature into a crevice, and he discovered it was a Roush. The two Roush introduced themselves as Michal and Gabil (The names sound like Archangels Michael and Gabriel). The three conversed for a little while, and Johnis found out he might die because Gabil had told him that most chosen ones ended up dying. Gabil wanted Johnis to promise him that Johnis would stay alive long enough to find the Lost Books of History. Johnis promised, but he thought it sounded weird. Meanwhile, at the Horde camp, Qurong was angered at the loss of the assassins. Qurong wants Johnis dead because Thomas Hunter thinks Johnis could save the people; Johnis dead will devastate Hunter. In the forest, Thomas was worried about the four chosen ones. Mikil and Thomas are worried about the recruits, and that they are not probably strong enough to go fight the Horde.