Beyond your World and Mine the love story (The Universal Book Book 2)
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There in the press at the front of the crowd I was just then beginning to give myself over to that weird abandon that comes over you in unfamiliar places, where you have no friends, no connections, no social responsibilities of any kind.
What happened next took up about four minutes and thirty- four seconds. I knew it, right there, without words and well beyond the possibility of contradiction: It is better to be doing this, exactly here, exactly now, than any other human thing.
Her doctor ordered rest - preferably away from the pressures of her chaotic house and family. In that world, she awakens to her true potential and destiny, sent on a mission by the wondrous and beautiful man Justin who is much, much more than a man to find five Seals that will reveal truth and reality to both Earth and Other Earth. Not only that, but he writes excellent prose and the stories he conceived are always clever and illuminate the human condition. I will call out that you need to have read the prior book, The 49th Mystic if this book is to make sense, I also recommend that you have read the Circle Trilogy however that is not a must. I especially loved seeing inclusions from her poetry at many of the chapter headings throughout the book.
You will have enjoyed some of your own, I imagine, and so will know they are not unique to the concert hall, the dance floor, the bar. The whole bright delirium of sex, for instance, might be described in just these terms. The world whose content is surprise, delight, self- forgetfulness, and self- reclamation? The world whose chief currency is joy? A writer called Laura Kipnis has a great phrase. We find our way to other idioms. Dreaming, you could say, speaks in other tongues.
I swear to you I encountered exactly that feeling, that sense of elated certainty wedded to a welcome susceptibility to transformation, there at a show by a band called the Wedding Present, at around eleven p. Madrid time, the thirteenth of November, near the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century. I had passed the previous week. Consult your nearest maps and you will see that Norwich is the metropolitan center of a region of England called East Anglia.
I can tell you that it is a town that saw its heyday in about the mid- s and, to the under informed visitor, appears to have been in a steady, unhurried decline ever since.
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Of course, this is hardly fair. In Norwich you will find a. I was there because they were there. I was there because of the volume of post adolescent hilarity that had passed so fluently between us and that had, over the years, broadened and solidified into what all three of us would have just called love. I was there because I was in flight. Unluckily for them, my brokenness and I—that wearisome pair—had washed right up at their door. They did what they could. With an unstraining deftness of touch, they cared for me.
At night we drank, and talked, and launched ourselves into three- body dance parties in their under heated front room. Every morning, before Anne went to work, Donal would make us all eggs and sausage in an enormous silver fry-pan,. And before I could prevent it happening there it was: That night I wrote a friend back home, who knew the shape of these episodes. She sympathized, and reassured, and encouraged. Maybe what I needed right then, she suggested, was care in a different, more immediately bodily mode.
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They are the unsexiest people on planet Earth. Have you ever been to Madrid? Here are some of the basic and curative things it was rumored to possess: What was there to dispirit?
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And yet from the start nothing was quite kicking my way. I picked from out of my bag a battered copy of The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James, a novel of youthful promise and blighted happiness that in just those unsteady days it would perhaps have been wise not to peruse. I was reading it cover to cover, again. Inside the doorframe was the familiar collage of posters: That had come earlier.
Some thousands of miles away the terms of it all, of that terrible and unforeseen dissolution, were being haggled over by bored, prosperous attorneys. But the implosion had come almost exactly a year before, the detonating announcement. There in Madrid I was yet suffering from what you could call a failure of imagination. In a thousand lifetimes I would not have believed the previous year of life to be even remotely possible.
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That, really, continued to be the problem. It was so shattering and ugly but also, inescapably, so commonplace. A bit of unexceptional private cataclysm. Some part of me must have known this. And yet it felt like a daily immersion in incomprehensibility. I was in the midst of an experience, unyielding and actual, that I could not quite imagine. And there was I. Meanwhile, from Maine to New York, and then from Italy to England, from the tranced air of libraries to the clatter of foreign speech in far-flung bars, I moved in a haze of undispersing grief.
Everything, then, was a kind of trip wire. Fragments of a lost self, a despoiled life. I walked around feeling like nothing so much as my own puzzled ghost. Out one cloud-congested Parisian morning on a mopey stroll, I wandered past a playground, a tumult of children speaking rushes of words I did not understand.
We asked for suggestions of your favourite science fiction books. science fiction novels which can change the way you look at the world. .. the our absolute ignorance of what lies beyond the bounds of the earth, Morally ambiguous love-story combined with grounded, 'realistic' Finished it in 2 days. Talk 2 HSK This dream transforms his life beyond all comprehension, in which he the world, Harrison stands to lose everything that matters most: his family, his “For all of his biting wit, Key's love of writing is what shines through in the end.” Here is the universal story of a boy's struggle to reconcile himself with an .
And there, in an instant, with day-derailing clarity, a vision rose up before me. I saw two little girls on a schoolyard in Maine—sisters—standing inside a crowd of classmates in the clamoring minutes before the first bell. And one of them, the oldest of the two, is looking at me, and then to one of her little grade-school friends, and then back to me. I like to think of him as the great guitar-rock poet of the romantically aggrieved post adolescent. You know the type and, perhaps, are the type: More or less every Wedding Present song makes the argument that rock and roll and love are, in most all the ways that matter, exactly alike.
Both of them carry us down Persephone-like into selves we may sometimes fear have abandoned us, left us to wander the colorless deserts of adulthood. But that descent is also a kind of renewal, because those putatively outgrown selves, ridiculous though they may have been, are awash in these undiminished intensities of feeling. If you like arguments made mostly of enormous distorted sound, guitars up and vocals down, you may well like the Wedding Present. I like the Wedding Present.
You know the long tradition of songs about the Other Woman, about her deferrals and duplicities and inevitable disappointments? Sung in the voice of a man whose lover has, after fully seven years of illicit intimacy,. What kind of sorrow is that lover entitled to? Our singer, all wounded petulance, has no kind of answer. What it proves he does have, though, arrives in the layered upwelling of furious noise to which the song, in its final moments, at last surrenders itself.
Inside the normative frame of daily life, this is a happy enough microevent, one of those small-scale disturbances of the dulled surface of things that make the world. Imagine this, then, unfolding inside the battering cacophony of a live show. There, it feels a good deal less like dawning clarity than like a deeply pleasing species of assault —a siege on sense, played out on the fine responsive instrument of your whole body.
So I shook and sang and shouted. They are not the type of book I prefer to read, but since I read the last book in this series, The 49th Mystic, I was asked to review this one, and truthfully, I wanted to find out if Rachelle got the rest of the seals!
No, I'm not going to tell you if she succeeded, what I will say to you is that if anyone is going to get me to read fantasy, it would be Ted Dekker. The man knows how to weave a tale - and what a tale I am probably the last person in the world who should be reading a fantasy book. The man knows how to weave a tale - and what a tale it is! In the last book, Rachelle had three of the five seals she needed and Project Eden had been revealed to the world, in this book she has been brainwashed by DARPA who quite literally have wiped her memory clean and she can't remember who she is.
Not a good thing when you are supposed to be saving the world, especially when you have an evil demon pulling the strings behind the scenes. While The 49th Mystic immediately grabbed my attention and drew me in, The Rise of the Mystics took me a little longer to get into, because of what was happening to Rachelle and her father. As I continued to read, the story began to improve, but it bothered me when it seemed to be leaning towards the false doctrine of Universalism. Now I could be wrong there because as I said, fantasy books are not my thing.
I might have just missed the whole point because frankly, there was a lot of deeper stuff to this book, so you had to think about it rather than enjoy the story. In the end I "got it" and Dekker captured the glory of heaven, redemption and forgiveness uniquely. So the ending was I almost gave it away. The Rise of the Mystics releases October 2nd. Order your book now. You won't be disappointed. Sep 21, Krystal rated it it was amazing.
Usually I am not at a loss for words, but as I sit here pondering the right words to describe the journey that the Rise of the Mystics takes you on I am stunned! We are on the cusp, just like the 49th, of major Usually I am not at a loss for words, but as I sit here pondering the right words to describe the journey that the Rise of the Mystics takes you on I am stunned! We are on the cusp, just like the 49th, of major change in our World and we are called, just as Rachelle is, to be the bearer of love and light through the five seals of Truth.
Dekker, does not disappoint, the pace, the characters, the flow is consistent with what we have come to love and expect of his writing. The transformation, the light in the darkness, the love without fear, and holding no records of wrong, these are truths that will have you sitting in wonder, pondering if you are ready to be a part of the realm of mystics, where you can find true power in this life and peace in the storms.
Or will you keep living like The Circle, placing your hope in a better life to come while living in fear in this one? It is time to Dive Deep and remove the blindness to our true identity! Sep 16, Natasha rated it liked it. This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I am a huge fan of Ted Dekker and have read most of his books. So, there kind of have to be didactic parts to the book. On the other hand, this practical approach to those Truths, as lived out by Rachelle, does help them stick better in the mind.
So, this book was good for that for me, particularly as she got closer to the Fifth Seal. By then, I felt like there was more gentle revelation and less textbook information. This only happens in Other Earth, where the rules have always been a bit different. On Earth, everyone still has to make the journey on their own, so the picture given on Other Earth is confusing.
Is Dekker trying to say everyone will be saved, no matter their beliefs or actions? On Other Earth, they did, too. There are bound to be theological discrepancies or exclusions, even errors, on the part of the writer and misunderstandings on the part of the reader. After all, we live in a world bound in polarity, as Dekker puts it. The Bible does that for us.
I saw through new eyes some of those wonderful Truths Dekker presents. Oct 02, Joann rated it it was amazing. Before you read this book I highly recommend you read the first book in the series, The 49th Mystic. The plot is intricate and could be difficult to follow without the background of the first book in the series. Dekker is a great storyteller and his perception of evil is EVIL. The story of Rachelle, who is the 49th mystic, is very exciting - dealing with people who populate the earth we know, but also traveling in her dreams to an ancient earth where she interacts with their warring societies in a desperate search for truth.
It is a story of love vs fear, freedom vs imprisonment, and is deeply spiritual. God created us and has an overwhelming love for us. His desire is to have a relationship with each of us but sin and fear get in the way. Through Rachelle those barriers can be struck down making that relationship possible, and offering a world where people truly care about each other and fulfilling the commandment of Jesus that we should love God and our neighbor.
I have read several of Mr. He has a unique and imaginative approach to storytelling. The presentation of his faith in his stories is gentle and loving, and unmistakable. Sep 23, Meagan Myhren-bennett rated it it was amazing Shelves: And you absolutely have to read book 1 The 49th Mystic first if you don't you will be more lost than Rachelle Matthews when she first awoke in the desert of Other Earth from book 1.
Everything that Rachelle thought that she had known was wrong or so the DARPA professionals working to help her would have her believe. Vlad Smith, nope just an implanted memory. And her dreams that take her to Other Earth just a manifestation of her schizophrenia for which they are treating her. Rachelle is a threat to both worlds as she is to usher in change through her actions if she can succeed in her mission of finding the Five Seals.
And in Other Earth, she is being held in an Elyonite prison. Worse the Horde know that both she and Jacob are prisoners of the Elyonite and they want them back. Rachelle is the 49th Mystic but her life in Other Earth has been stripped of its early memories thanks to the poison she received while imprisoned by the Horde. The Horde is not alone in their desire to stop her. The Elyonites too wish to stop her heretical beliefs and destroy the Mystics and their Realm in the process. Needing to re-learn, to re-member, what she once knew Rachelle is in a race against time and her own fears.
But fear is a powerful foe, one that must be conquered before her time runs out. He is not alone as the Circle - many that one knew from The Circle series are integral to the story. And then there is Justin. After reading this series you'll want to reread The Circle if it has been a while since you last read them. It is easy to return to this world - it is like visiting a favorite childhood haunt and having the time away vanish.
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Ted Dekker has created another superb chapter in this world and one that should not be missed. I was sent an advanced reader copy of this book by the publisher after submitting proof on my pre-order of this book with no expectations other than offering my honest opinion. Sep 21, Jess Eischens rated it it was amazing Shelves: There's so much truth woven into the pages of "Rise of the Mystics.
The fast pace of her adventures, the powerful emotions of the characters and plot twists often left me eagerly reading into the late hours of the night because I just couldn't stop turning the pages! Several moments left me pumping my fist and yelling, "Yeah! I also love how Ted manages to sneak in characters of other books he's written and you'll just have to read to find that out! It's just so fun, and wild, and full of adventure. Nice work, Ted Dekker!
I can't recommend this book highly enough! Of course, make sure to read "The 49th Mystic" first before diving into this one. Oct 18, Dr. He holds my attention till the final page. Only Hurricane Florence Disaster Relief work caused me to take so long to finish this spellbinding novel. Read the 49th Mystic and then this book for thrilling adventure. I must state that as I understand the ending, theologically I am not in agreement. Still, the storyline makes for interesting reading. Oct 02, Audrey rated it it was amazing Shelves: I have no words.
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light into all that are in the house. Let your light so shine, before men, that may s So profound. Let your light so shine, before men, that may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. Oct 06, Anna Smith rated it it was amazing Shelves: This was such an intense, gripping conclusion to the first book in the series, The 49th Mystic.
I thoroughly enjoyed that book. What an amazing book. Dekker has a way of writing that jumps off the page and causes you to look inside your own heart. I loved the dual storylines in this book, he did a wonderful job of keeping them separate, yet weaving them together where needed. Sep 22, Tessa rated it it was amazing. I got the book for free though the giveaway on goodreads and couldn't wait to read it. I finally read it and it was nice to read the continuation of the circle books with a new generation. I can't wait for the next book to come out next month.
Ted Dekker does a nice job in bringing biblical views into the story without stuffing it down your throat. It's an easy read and I enjoyed the storyline. Sep 26, Esther rated it really liked it. Two worlds, one hero! Rise of the Mystics wraps up the Beyond the Circle series. As I read, I cheered Rachelle on.
Her quest for truth was a great reminder of God's love for me. I liked the way Dekker wove Biblical teaching into the story. This series is separate from the original Circle series, but I definitely want to go back and read them again. I would recommend this series to any Dekker or fantasy fan. Nov 05, Barbara Justiniano rated it really liked it. This is the second book of the two book series called Beyond The Circle.
I enjoyed both books. A very good read. Sep 16, Matt McAbee rated it really liked it Shelves: Wonderful ride to the finish with Rachelle as she tries to find the last two seals. Ted Dekker pulls out all the stops on this amazing ride to the finish to save the Realm of the Mystics. Sep 21, Hannah Whatley rated it it was amazing. In that love, you hold no record of wrong, and you escape all fear because there is no fear in love. Ted Dekker did it. Or at least, he answered all of mine. It is the continuation of the story of Rachelle Matthews, a young woman on a journey from blindness to sight in more ways than one.
The 49th Mystic finds Rachelle in a sheltered paradise called Eden, Utah, physically blind but able to see far more than her father or the town leaders ever could. Since her earliest years, she has dreamed of a terrifying being she calls Shadow Man, never imagining that he would materialize into the tightly-secured Eden as the cunning Vlad Smith to pursue her and take control of the city.
With his appearance, however, comes another new experience for Rachelle: In that world, she awakens to her true potential and destiny, sent on a mission by the wondrous and beautiful man Justin who is much, much more than a man to find five Seals that will reveal truth and reality to both Earth and Other Earth. She is the 49th Mystic of the great prophecy. And he is sure he will succeed. In Other Earth, the armies of every great kingdom—the Horde, the Elyonites, the Eramites, and the Circle—are preparing to clash, all aiming in their own way to eradicate the Realm of Mystics—charged with heresy by every other belief system—and using Rachelle as the means to do so.
Rise of the Mystics is my favorite book by Ted Dekker so far, and I would also say it is his best work. One of the most defining aspects of an excellent work of literature is how it presents and answers universal questions—Why am I here? What is the point of life? If there is a point, how do I find victory and peace in this life instead of pushing through constant struggle, fear, and pain? Who is God and what does He look like? Am I worthy of love?
Am I approved of? When I read Rise of the Mystics, I felt hope that there was a way for me to find truth, the truth that spilled over in its pages. Rise of the Mystics is a masterful and beautiful work that I believe will take the world by storm. Hungry souls are longing for the love that sings to them through its words. Read it and find love. Nov 04, Gloria rated it it was amazing Shelves: This is the second book in a duo, which began in The 49th Mystic.
Rachelle is the main focus in both books. Memory Editing Protocol MEP is used on everyone from Eden probably with their permission beforehand, but not remembering afterwards. Rachelle, on the other hand, remembers - and is in both worlds. She found the first three seals in the other book, and now is on a quest for the fourth a This is the second book in a duo, which began in The 49th Mystic.
She found the first three seals in the other book, and now is on a quest for the fourth and fifth seals - hopefully before the armies of Horde and Elyonites can find the Mystics to destroy them. Vlad has not gone away. In fact, he manipulates Rachelle's father into writing him back to present Earth along with other Leedhan see other books in the Books of History list on Goodreads. Leedhan are half-Shakitai and half-human, can shapeshift and are generally considered "vampires". Vlad has manipulated the President of the United States in order to get him elected and then to change American society - because it cannot go on as it has.
Their experiments have already convinced her that she is schizophrenic and delusional - but the voices she hears are the ones meant to lead her to the fourth and fifth seals; her delusions are reality. Rachelle is blamed in present Earth for terrorist attacks. Vlad set that up so as to prevent her from gaining the remaining seals. They eventually gain access to Karen, the President's Chief of Staff, and are joined by an unlikely ally from the Other World. The Elyonites release Jacob the Scab from the Horde and Rachelle the 49th Mystic so as to allow them to lead Samuel from the Circle to the Realm of the Mystics and thereby have a place to invade.
Helping Jacob and Rachelle is Talya and his white lion, Judah. In the Realm of the Mystics, Jacob becomes an Albino. With the story tracks happening at the same time, Rachelle is allowed to speak to delegates on present Earth while Rachelle in Other Earth realizes the Fifth Seal. Because of the unlikely ally's intervention, the Rachelles are able to transmit information between the two but they do NOT switch off unlike what happened in the Circle series with Thomas Hunter.
The village of the Mystics is destroyed by the Elyonites and the Horde. The 49th is drowned in one of Elyon's lakes - and realizes the Fifth Seal. Being in a lake of Elyon's revives Rachelle who walks out of the lake. Her song begins the transformation of those in Other Earth. In present Earth, Rachelle has the same song, is exonerated from the terrorist attacks. Rachelle has some restitution and buys the previous site of Eden. In Other Earth, where the book ends, readers get a thread to another series by Ted Dekker, I was not sure whether this was the Second Coming before the Millennium Revelation style , or if it was the Final Judgment Revelation style.
Either way, the question of whether people would be returning to Other Earth is left open. Surrender is the Means to Seeing the Light". Surrender what you think should be, because judgment and grievance which block the Light come from insisting that things and people should be a particular way. The Fifth seal is "White: True Love is the Evidence of Being in the Light" hide spoiler ] Oct 01, Meg rated it really liked it Shelves: A bit of a thrown-down gauntlet I guess.
So picking up this novel at my local library was a bit of chance game, but I was game for it. However, the good news was that it was coming out fairly soon. I only had to wait until October. Or so I thought. Then again, I serendipitously or providentially as I prefer got an email about signing up for a launch team with the opportunity to read an advanced copy.
My launch team selection email had my trying to do cartwheels in our small car as my husband drove through the U. But instead of being redundant, I rather appreciated the way in which Dekker is weaving this theme over and over again into the lives of his main characters — even as they learn and forget become blind over and over again. I read the first novel right after finding out I had thyroid cancer.
Little pieces of both the Old and New Testaments both stories and doctrines are woven throughout the story, so that those of us who are also followers of Jesus in this life can see ourselves in this story — and learn and grow in our faith along with Rachelle, et al. I challenge you to dive deep and see what you think for yourself. Oct 03, Jessica Higgins rated it it was amazing. Fans of Dekker and the Circle series will not want to miss this this follow-up installment that holds true to all that fans have come to expect from this exceptional writer.
It has been many years since the death of Thomas Hunter, but he is still remembered in our world and the world he still lives in. No one has gone between the worlds like he did until now. Rachelle Matthews has somehow found a way into that other world just as Thomas Hunter did. In this world, she learned she was the 49th mys Fans of Dekker and the Circle series will not want to miss this this follow-up installment that holds true to all that fans have come to expect from this exceptional writer.
In this world, she learned she was the 49th mystic and is on a mission to find the five ancient seals before they can be destroyed by her enemies. Having already found the first three seals, she now searches for the final two. If she fails in her quest, the world will be plunged into darkness. She is going up against a dark force, Vlad Smith, who has her locked in a dungeon and is about to turn both worlds upside down. If she can find the Realm of Mystics and the final two seals without losing everything, she just might save both worlds. If you are a fan of the circle series then this is one you will not want to miss.
The 49th Mystic and Rise of the Mystics are a great pair to add to the circle series. It took me a little while to get through this book because you have to follow so closely to everything that is happening. Each chapter brings about a part of the story fans will think back on to previous books and it will bring a smile to their face remembering all of the aspects of the circle they might have forgotten.