Also by this author: The Promise, The Drummer Boy, Sinner, Green, The Dream Traveler's Quest, Into the Book of Light, The Curse of Shadownman, The Garden and the Serpent, The Final Judgment, Millie Maven and the Bronze Medallion, Nine, Millie Maven and the Golden Vial, Millie Maven and the White Sword, Millie Maven, And They Found Dragons, The Blue Boy and the Red Princess, The Dragon Rider Who Saved the World, The Unknown Path
Series: The World Fixers #3
Published by Scripturo on October 1, 2025
Genres: Children's, Fiction, Fantasy
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Time is running out as Andrew and Heidi follow the map from island to island, learning critical lessons in the face of grave danger at each destination. It isn’t until they finally reach the island of Amor, the final island, that the full truth of what they are facing is revealed. The Night Wizard seems to be far too great an adversary for two young humans.
Andrew’s desperation to find and save his father pushes him to the brink as Heidi scrambles to find a way to save her people.
In the end, there is only one way to vanquish the darkness. But it goes against everything they have known.
The World Fixers builds to an exhilarating climax as Andrew and Heidi come face to face with the Night Wizard, finally understanding what it means to love your enemy, the only way to find peace in a world divided by grievances like our own.
Ted and Rachelle Dekker wrap up their The World Fixers trilogy with The Light of the One. Andrew and Heidi, having narrowly escaped an island of strict judgment, have learned that there is a dark force that is driving the division between their two cities. Andrew has been poisoned by the leader of the Holy and the effects of the dangerous Night Blood have left him both afraid and ready to lash out at anyone and everyone. Soon, they find that it’s this Night Blood that has contaminated their cities’ water supplies and caused the fear and paranoia that is leading to war. Of course, this doesn’t explain the historical animosity between the two cities, but whatever.
There’s a brief stop on an island of ruins that they barely escape from then they find themselves at Amor Island, the island of love. There, they discover that the Night Wizard has attacked the cities in Cora. He is the cause of the rift and he is poisoning the waters of Cora with Night Blood. Andrew and Heidi learn even more lore of their world, including how Amor Island used to be known as Fury Island. It, too, was nearly destroyed until a sage sent by the One offered Magdalene, the island’s leader, a different way. She spurned it but her daughter, Tabitha, took up this “forgotten path—the way of love.” And this, too, is what Cora needs to heal itself.
This, like so many of Dekker’s books from the past five years, is the central theme of the story and relates directly back to Dekker’s non-fiction works The Forgotten Way and The Way of Love. Here, though, those principles aren’t ever detailed. We just know it’s a different path to follow and that’s love, but there’s no discussion about how hard love can be, or how difficult reparation and reconciliation actually is.
Mother—the current leader of Amor—gives Andrew and Heidi a chapter long exposition about it all. Here’s a snippet:
“You believe your differences threaten one another. That they are enough to make you hate each other…Your people are at war, just like the brothers from which you come. You believe the lie that your differences are dangerous. But these are only ideas. The true threat is your fear and judgement of one another…” [Mother shows them light through a prism] “As you can see, the light from the sun now appears as many colors on the wall because the prism changes the wave lengths. But the colored light is still the same light as the light from the sun…The same light exists in all people, as the One taught. He made it clear, speaking to all who can hear, that all are the light of the world. But we have covered up that light with another identity, like a basket you hide under. When the basket is removed and the light shines. It may appear red, or blue, or purple, or green, but the light is still light, only now appearing at different wave lengths. This is the process of creation. You are the light within the prism, temporarily seen as one of the colors displayed on the wall. But your true identity is still light. Love is that light, and like a candle set ablaze in the darkest room, it chases away the shadows. It chases away fear.”
Andrew then wonders “Could it really be that simple?”
Here’s the problem: That’s not a simple explanation. It’s simplistic, yet also overly complex and taught didactically even though that’s not a great form of teaching in fiction. Everything in this book and series is about telling and not showing. The message is good. The allegory is there, ripe for the taking, but the Dekkers manage to both over- and under-develop the story and leave things a rather confusing mess.
This exposition is all of an ending the story needs as, armed with this knowledge, the kids return to their homelands on the back of a sea dragons (of course there are dragons), there’s a dagger made out of love that will vanquish the Night Wizard (because for all the talk of Love, things still must be resolved with violence). And then it’s all over. The End.
This whole series has problems from the dialogue to pacing to plotting to editing and everything in between. It’s not a new theme for the Dekkers. They’ve told this same story in much better fashion before. Go read the Millie Maven series. Go read the Circle Trilogy. Skip these.