Left Behind: A Novel of the Earth's Last Days (Left Behind #1) Reviews

• Illogical and uninspired

  
  By A1XSISWPPZ928V on 2001-09-09
  This is the first in a very long (I think there a 10 so far!!) series of books that tell of the end of the world as foretold in the book 'Revelations' of the bible.
  If you took the bible's apocalyptic prophecy. Put an unimaginitve spin on it. Added some 2 dimensional characterizations and truely ridiculous plot lines, (the russians launch an all out nuclear attack against israel because the israelis have developed a means to fertilize deserts, does that make sense to you?) then add some thinly veiled preaching and you have this book.

  Having said that I found my curiosity helped me through this book. I was ignorant of the book of Revelations predictions. I was curious enough to see how events would unfold to keep reading thru the 1st 3 books. But the scenario unfolds painfully slowly if you find the characters dull and unbelievable.

  In the 3rd book many pages are devoted to explaining things that I had already read in the previous books, that was very tedious. After the 3rd book my curiousity about the prophecies was not enough to overcome my boredom.

  I have found "The Christ Clone Trilogy" much more enjoyable.
  
  

• An End Time book by Chistians - for Christians

  
  By A23GI8XN6XYTO3 on 2000-12-31
  Christians believe that as the End Time comes, God will gather all the real Christians around his throne in Heaven, body and soul.

  This book centers on those 'left behind' on earth. It shows the chaos that emerges as millions of people disappear, how people try to figure out what happend, how some re-find their fate in God, and how the Anti-Christ emerges. It's a well structured, swift paced book that focusses on world events as well as on personal experiences of people. I could not put it down, even though I wanted to.

  The downside of the book is that (though cleverly hidden behind all the action) it still will be felt by the non-believer, that the authors are hoping to persuade people to their Christian believes. That spoils some of the uncomplicated fun of reading this. On the upside: for those who DO believe in Christ this will make the book a warm bath that will strengthen their beliefs.

  On the whole I liked Beauseigneur's Christ Clone Trilogy better, because it offered more food for the mind, appeared better researched in worldly matters such as the United Nations politics, and didn't seem so focussed on the conversion of people in the book and outside of it.
  
  

• A Good "End-Times" Book for Christians

  
  By A2M0MYAOZXA6GT on 2001-02-05
  The idea of the book is great, though done before. The way this book is written though, basically, chronicals the events that take place in the "end-times" as described in the Bible.

  The book revolves around some central characters. They all are involved with the church in one way or another. Eventually you see most of them "converted" into Christians. As they are they feel that their "mission" is to convert others. There also is some romantic "tension" thrown into the mix. The characters aren't all developed too well but I still felt a connection with them.

  I enjoyed this book and think that many others will too. Although this book, I feel, was written mainly for Christians. There is no subtlety in the message. Everything is taken almost verbatim from the Bible. It doesn't give you a lot of "food for thought". For that I recommend James BeauSeigneur's "The Christ Clone Trilogy". "Left Behind" is pretty straight forward and a great beginning to the series. Highly recommended for Christians.
  
  

• A Great Book No Matter Your Favorite Genre...

  
  By A1HCUTT1FVKR56 on 2000-04-25
  A colleague suggested this series, and I have become enthralled, not being able to tear myself away for long. This novel is well researched and well written: its easy-to-understand explanation of the Book of Revelations is wonderfully woven into a captivating story of developed characters with whom anyone can identify.

  In recommending the book to family and friends, I have marveled at the fact that it is written for any adult comprehension level, offering cues to remember the varied characters and keeping unnecessary "buck-and-a-quarter-words" to a minimum, yet painting intricate illustrations for one's mind so clear you feel you are among the characters (I read the first half of this book during a long car ride, and in pausing occasionally to catch my breath, I had to remind myself of where I was).

  This story offers elements to attract readers from any genre; religious, sci-fi, political, action and adventure, suspense thriller, and romance readers alike will find this an interesting read. Moreover, it has touched my life, causing me to reevaluate my priorities. I plan to purchase several copies to distribute among those closest to me. I would suggest everyone read it!
  
  

• Made-for-Television Apocalypse

  
  By A2MJ3CEJK05HO8 on 2000-12-05
  I tend to side with those reviewers who found the book rather light. With the exception of Rayford Steele, most of the characterizations lack depth and consistency. The authors occasionally drop off into mini-sermons that clash otherwise with the flow of the story. And as the events of Revelation unfold, the good and bad become too transparent, too black and white, and too obvious. As suggested by another reader, I read the first of the Christ Clone Trilogy and was much more impressed. In the end, Left Behind comes across as the basis for a television miniseries than a fully fleshed novel. I'm not as harsh as some critics, so I give it three stars for being readable, not too preachy, and interesting in its way.
  
  
• Leave it Behind
  By A3JYTCJNA6WN1X on 2000-06-13
  When faced with such a book, it is difficult to know just where to begin. If the book is taken simply as the first in what has become a series of mediocre but widely sold science fiction or fantasy novels, then the review can end here, stating simply that it is written at a middle school reading level with characters that are two dimensional at best. However, I have noticed that this book is looked to as something more than just a novel. It has become a part of the apocryphal literature of many non-denominational (and some denominational) Christian churches. For this reason, a more detailed assessment is needed.

  The premise, that a group of people gather into an underground resistance following the apocalypse to oppose the anti-Christ, is problematic. Theologically, the idea of a post-apocalyptic redemption through good works is contradictory. Protestant theology grants redemption on the basis of God's grace; good works are not considered in the equation. In Catholic theology, good works are the way to redemption, with redemption also possible in Purgatory. The book is decidedly not written from a Catholic perspective, thus Protestant theology must be assumed. However, if the apocalypse has happened, then the game is over. Redemption is no longer possible. Furthermore, if such is the case, why would anyone "left behind," essentially the unrighteous, wish to battle the new ruler? Traditional Christian interpretation of the apocalypse does not allow for second chances, so what is to be gained? In a universe that has already experienced the final judgement, God has spoken and nothing done by man can change the outcome. The answer can only be that the book reflects the free form Christianity of modern suburban America, which is essentially devoid of theology. It exhibits no coherence, mixing free will with predestination, combining the doctrine of works with the doctrine of grace, picking and choosing from the Old and New Testaments as necessary or convenient. This leaves two questions: was the book written to specifically appeal to a group of people (a target market group) who would not be expected to ask such questions or are the authors simply ignorant of such matters? Depending upon the answer to these questions, the book is either a cynical, now successful, piece of marketing or a testimony to a modern atheological religion's attempt to create a modern scripture.

  From a writing standpoint, the book is fairly simple. The main characters are poorly developed and are quite unreal. They seem to be the image of the unrighteous as held by those who consider themselves above such people. Their motives are too simple, too transparent. Every plot twist, of which there are many, are either cliché or contrived. If Hollywood were interested, this book would make an excellent screenplay. As a movie it could be expected to be successful (though it still would not be very good) as it would lend itself very well to visual representation. There is a good deal of action, heaps of emotion, and scenes that simply beg for a visual image. In some ways, it's the religious equivalent of a modern romance novel - simple, unchallenging, and inspiring of personal fantasy (albeit religious instead of sexual).

  Regardless of critical reviews, the book can be expected to be a best seller. What its admirers seem to ask of it transcends style or coherence. They don't demand complex characters or plausible plot lines. They only ask for their views to be justified in print. Theology, eschatology, and all systems of classical religious study are abandoned in pursuit of spiritual catharsis. Reviews cannot be expected to change this desire. To say that this book is not worth reading seems almost gratuitous. If you know you want to read this book, go ahead and do so. If you are not sure, take a bit of friendly advice: leave it behind and look for something a bit more complex and coherent.
  
  

• Leave this Behind or Enter Literary Hell....
  By A2KAVOGWK3BRB7 on 2001-01-01
  I read a lot, and a lot of what I read (particularly that written within the last decade) is simply poorly-written garbage. The authors lack knowledge of basic grammar and composition. They peddle incoherent plots and cardboard characterization. Worse, they can't even turn a phrase to make the experience a pleasure for the wordsmiths among their readership.

  And that's pretty much all there is to say about "Left Behind."

  I've always rather enjoyed apocalyptic fiction, served up straight as in "The Omen" or with a wink as in "Good Omens." LaHaye and Jenkins' writing is so weak (I believe LaHaye came up with the concept and Jenkins actually wrote the thing) that I couldn't slog through a hundred pages without throwing the book in the trash for the god awful dialogue, the truck stop proselytizing, the paper-thin characterization and plot. Unfortunately, I've bought 6 paperbacks, believing that something this popular couldn't possibly be drivel. Live and learn...

  An example for those of you who are inclined to think I'm given to hyperbole in describing how wretched this book is: we all know the story concerns the conflict between God and the Antichrist. How do the authors introduce their Antichrist? By having a character remark about how he's heard about this charismatic guy in Romania who seems to be gathering quite a following....

  I could go on, but that was the point at which the book hit the can.

  Stay away from this as though it were cursed, my friends. I'll get time off in Purgatory for providing you with this advice.
  
  

• I don't know whether to be offended or terrified - or both!
  By on 2001-01-26
  Ok, I initially picked this book up because it sounded like an intriguing plotline (a little like Stephen King's The Stand mixed with his novella "The Langoliers"). What I didn't expect was a thinly disguised piece of propaganda aimed to make readers feel horrible about themselves and basically live in fear for the rest of their lives. But enough of how I disagree with the ideas behind the book. As for the book itself, I can find practically no reason to continue beyond the first chapter. The characters are completely undeveloped and any interesting facets of anyone's personality is lost whenever he or she becomes "saved." I found myself becoming upset whenever one of the characters became "saved" because that meant he or she would no longer be an interesting individual and now would basically be interchangeable with any other of the "saved" characters. Don't get me wrong, I have a few friends that are part of this lifestyle and they are wonderful people who are not preachy or obnoxious in the least, but I would not last a minute with any of these characters - they are too simplistic and annoying to be believed. There's no surprises, no reversals, and everything that happens is completely predictable. This book is so elitist as to be down right insulting to anyone who doesn't subscribe to this particular ethos. I honestly don't understand who is buying all these copies. As for continuing with the series, you've GOT to be kidding. I'm an openminded person and I have no problem exploring lifestyles different from my own, but this book exists solely to make people feel bad about their choices, and to bully them into changing their lives through fear. I cannot support or recommend that.
  
  
• Left Me Behind
  By A1TTKJIKU5WS on 2000-10-05
  The best selling Christian fiction series in history... is mediocre. The first book, Left Behind, left me completely behind, and underwhelmed. I've read the entire series so far and it doesn't get much better. If you don't know, the series takes place after the rapture of the church. Those left behind must choose between Christ and the anti-Christ. A group of survivors realizes that Jesus is the way and they dedicate themselves to taking a stand for Him, calling themselves the Tribulation Force.

  The problem I have with the series is simply that it is not well written. It feels as if it's written at a 6th grade level, has unconvincing dialogue, and a plot which I've seen done much better. And done in only one book (there's no excuse for stretching this series out over twelve books). The authors also talk down to the reader, assuming they are not smart enough to follow the storyline without constant reminders of major plot points. That gets old really fast. Quit patronizing me and give me a little bit of credit, thank you. The phenomenal sales figures are impressive, but due in no way to the quality of the writing. I recognize that there still may be ministerial value in these books, but that doesn't excuse the above points. Two stars, and a hope that the final books in the series pick up the slack.
  
  

• Shallow, fundamentalist garbage
  By A1R42BD524O51 on 2000-11-02
  I realize that in this world, there are those that believe fiction(the rapture etc.) to be true. That, in itself, does not scare me. What does scare me, is their willful intent to literally scare others into believing what they do. You can discount the fact that this book is horribly written--on a sixth-grade level, it is merely mediocre--but do not discount the actual intent of the authors. Unlike Steven King--who writes fiction knowing all too well that it is only that--LaHaye and Jenkins actually believe that this could happen. Need I say more? I should hope that those who are smart enough to see through this scare-tactic will indeed steer clear of this crap, for fundamentalists need no more help distributing their ingorant literature. Those who already own the book might want to note that there are absolutely no credible reviews(On the book itself) for the book, only one-line blurbs from other fundamentalist readers. This alone should prove that it was written by and for fundamentalists ONLY. I suggest that those who want to read a good apocalyptic novel will take to Robert McGammon's Swan Song; for that, unlike this, is well-written, scary, and what I call "Intentional fiction". Misery may love company, but having read this, I would say that so too does ignorance-apathy(Take your pick).
  
  
• Awful writing, vicious thinking
  By A2PR6NXG0PA3KY on 2005-02-26
  There are three ways to look at Left Behind (which I read out of sincere interest in comprehending Fundamentalism):
  1. It's a book of science-fantasy, with a little soft-core sex and violence. It fits the genre. As such, it's a very poor job of writing. The characters are neither believable nor individuated enough to sympathize with. The action has no pace, no suspense. There's not a trace of humor. In short, no serious publisher would take a second look at at. Try Harry Potter instead; it's more plausible, and a lot more amusing. OR
  2. It's a diatribe, a book that rants against "others" in order to incite hatred. It reeks of bigotry and racism. If it portrays fundamentalist attitudes fairly, then fundamentalists are the sort of people who gloat over the distress of others--not the sort of people who love their neighbors, who see the beam in their own eyes before the speck in someone else's eye, or who forgive anyone 7X70 times! OR
  3. It's a coded secret message from some diabolic enemy of freedom, with instructions for subverting the democratic process and establishing a sectarian tyranny. I can't break the code; can you? Perhaps you should read every third word from the back of each chapter in order to find the meaning in this droning nonsense.
  All in all, I think my third interpretation is the most promising.
  
  
• No stupid puns on the title in this review. I promise!
  By A2EDZH51XHFA9B on 2004-06-07
  Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, Left Behind (Tyndale, 1995)

  So I figured after nine years, it was time for me to get around to reading the first book in the bestselling Christian fiction series in history, Left Behind. I had always avoided it, not because of the subject matter, but by and large books that break records tend to be writ large by those with the wit, talent, and grammatical skill of overly enthusiastic six-year-olds. Dame Barbara Cartland, Danielle Steel, Tom Clancy, John Grisham, Sandra Brown, you get the idea. Why should Christian fiction be any different?, I wondered. But despite all that, I dove into it.

  Expecting the worst may not have been enough. To call the book naïve would be, perhaps, too kind. It uses the conventions of satire without being in any way satiric, treats its readership like total idiots, has all the spelling and grammar mistakes one could possibly want from a mass-produced piece of claptrap, and various other things, all of which I will attempt to make sound as tactful as possible below. But the bottom line, for those who would rather stop reading now, is this: plot's not bad, but execution is some of the worst I have seen outside self-publishing. Ever.

  Without getting into the theological aspects of the book, it is impossible to write a comprehensive review of Left Behind without at least glossing over some of the more interesting (and less Biblical) assertions made by the authors, the most notable being the Rapturing (for lack of a better term) of everyone under the age of puberty. Hmmmmm. Including the ones in juvenile detention for murder? Okay, we'll drop the point. After all, our society is based (wrongly) on the idea that people can't make up their minds until they reach the magic age of eighteen. At least LaHaye and Jenkins dropped the magic age to twelve, for which they must get grudging respect.

  But little niggling theological concerns are perhaps less galling than LaHaye and Jenkins' complete and utter inability to ascribe a mote of intelligence to any of their characters, and by inference any of their audience. Not being a Christian and a regular attendee at church, I can't say for certain what the average joe learns about the end times. But even without regular church attendance for the last number of years, I remember enough of the Revelation of St. John from Bible study back in the day to have seen all the major twists coming at least a hundred pages before they actually do. And yet his characters, including the wife and daughter of a fundamentalist, are completely oblivious. Writing a book like this as a mystery/thriller, it seems, was not the way to go. Or if it were, perhaps adding a couple of extras who might have looked like they, too, could be the Antichrist might have helped with the suspense angle. (They do attempt a move exactly like this, but way too late and way too ineffectively.)

  I spent at least a hundred fifty pages of this book wondering, "where's the satire?" It was, of course, absent; LaHaye and Jenkins are deadly serious about approaching this series as novels mirroring the born-again Christian take on the end times. And yet despite their seriousness, they embrace the conventions of satire with open arms. Their businesses are thinly-disguised actual corporations with names that, in other circumstances, might be considered clever digs at those companies; their characters' names are ludicrous without being prophetic, a favorite mechanism of Dickens and Pynchon; the characters are often overwrought (and, really, it takes a good deal of mastery of the dime novel to make characters overact ON PAPER!); the aforementioned predictability in the mystery; you name it. It's all got the surface makings of great satire. Which makes me wonder how cool it would actually be if, after the series is finished, LaHaye and Jenkins called a press conference and yelled "April fools!" But I don't see that happening, and neither do you.

  Fully addressing the spelling and grammatical horrors in this book would take a book-length review, so we'll just note their existence, sneer at them, and move on to the stilted dialogue, the characters (who are cardboard cutouts of the thinnest stripe) and their inability to relate to one another (aside from, one assumes, snickering at the silliness of each others' names in the background), the constant use of cliché, the stopping of the plot every once in a while to throw in some gratuitous moralization (but this being right-wing Christian fiction, I expected a three-hundred-page altar call; I was not disappointed), and all the other little pieces of amateurism that add up to this book being of such horrible architecture that its popularity is really worth weeping over for the lover of the English language. It is obvious, here more than anywhere, that people are more than willing to overlook fatal flaws in the language as long as they can understand the book's message. St. McLuhan has lost the battle once and for all, and sixty-two million copies of the Left Behind novels speak with the public's booming voice: the message is the medium.

  It's enough to make a body want to give up reading. * ½
  
  

• Trash
  By A7XCO8BGAADCY on 2000-11-04
  If you wish to solidify your negative religious teachings about a vengeful, punishing god who inflicts cruel and unusual punishment on his children by all means read all of these books.

  If you have had enough of this, I would recommend the books Conversations With God and An Encounter With A Prophet, books designed to get rid of these primitive concepts of god and introduce you to God's unconditional love for his children.
  
  

• Embarassment to Christianity
  By A3TZD0Z4Q5U1FL on 2004-02-13
  As an evangelical Christian and a lover of literature, I cannot help but feel these books are an embarassment to the faith as well as to good literature itself. I have to admit I read several of them (they came highly recommended) and was apalled at the shallowness of the characters, not to mention the robot-like plots. I kept reading because I thought they couldn't possibly be as bad as I thought, but indeed they continued to get worse as I turned each page.

  I didn't see the 60 minutes interview that the previous reviewer mentioned, but wish I had. I do not bathe myself in theological rhetoric, and so didn't think I would be overly offended or supportive of anything in the books. I did think I would be able to respect Tim LaHaye in the end, but after reading this bunk, I think his agenda here strictly financial and has no bearing whatsoever to impact people (Christians or non) in a positive way. He should be ashamed of himself for a number of reasons after printing these books, but alas, clearly enjoys the growing popularity these books bring to his bank account.

  These books prey on the minds of the feeble at heart and people who probably have a pretty shallow understanding of who God is to begin with. I know I do speak for a very large part of evangelical Christianity when I say these books are an embarassment to the faith.

  Not worth the paper they were printed on. If I could give it zero stars, I would, but they don't let you do that on this Web site.
  
  

• Pseudo-Christian pornography
  By on 2004-03-15
  This kind of writing suffers from a condition once described as "taking literally what was meant metaphorically, while taking metaphorically what was meant literally". This series is an example of both defects at once. If taken at all seriously, it is an intellectual and spiritual insult to Christians and non-Christians alike, and it reduces religion itself to an idiotic who's in, who's out fraternity initation rite with a pornographic obsession with imagining another's damnation. Read it as you might read Mein Kampf: just to experience how a dangerously wacky mind works. But it is so thoroughly trashy, that even at that level it is hard to stomach.
  
  
• A message of hate that belongs in the dark ages
  By A4XPZN3H91Q0M on 2005-03-05
  This book and the others in the series are essentially a fundamentalist interpretation of the book of revelations. They depict Jesus returning to earth to slaughter everyone who is not a born-again Christian. Jews, Catholics, Hindus, agnostics, whomever doesn't share their particular beliefs is thrown into the fire pit as it were.
  
  A few salient points:
  
  1. The whole idea of the rapture is not to be found in the bible. It originated around 1830, based on the visions that a 15 year old girl named Margaret McDonald experienced while ill. She later shared them with clergymen, and a movement surrounding these ideas sprung up. Many religious scholars dispute the idea.
  
  2. In the modern world, we still have many problems with various groups claiming superiority based on beliefs or which group they belong to. Hutus killed Tsutsis in Rwanda, Shiites and Sunnis battle it out in the Middle East, and the born agains have convinced themselves that everyone who doesn't share their particular beliefs is eternally damned. As we try to evolve towards a more modern world, one should ask themselves whether this message is part of the solution or part of the problem.
  
  3. These same authors have a series of books for children expousing the same message. Is this any different than the fundamentalist Madrassa schools in the Middle East that the US has condemned for indoctrinating hate into young people? Should children go to school, where they will undoubtedly encounter other kids from different cultures/belief system, with the message that everyone not exactly like them in their beliefs is eternally damned?
  
  
• So so
  By A2UCBDXKOV0VF0 on 2002-01-04
  I've read all but two of the books in this series but I'm not sure why I keep reading. They are so so at best. If you have a lot of time on your hands or you drive a lot and can get the tapes at the library, great. They are no where near as good as the Christ Clone Trilogy by James BeauSeigneur.
  
  
• Take me! Take me! No, wait...don't.
  By A1E8XSRWYWULIN on 2004-12-28
  The premise of all righteous Christians mysteriously disappearing from the planet, leaving their clothes behind (on an airplane in the opening scene, no less, a blatant rip-off of Stephen King's "The Langoliers") should have posed theological challenges. Instead, this thriller is "Ramona Quimby" for adults.
  
  Faced with the disappearance of his wife, presumably to Heaven (why not?), Rayford Steele becomes a born-again Christian--meaning he's going to talk about the New Testament every day and avoid fantasizing about the flight attendant--so he can go to Heaven too. His wife was a Bible-studying queen of needlepoint and domesticity and is symbolized in the book by a plate of chocolate chip cookies. Steele's teenage daughter, also left behind, is slower than her father to "get religion." We're merely informed, not shown, that she's an "intellectual," perhaps because the authors had difficulty imagining what intellectual skepticism of religion might involve. However, within a few days of the ascension of the righteous, she too comes around, because she asked God to give her a sign, and an attractive man sat next to her on the airplane, which was exactly what she was waiting for.
  
  There is no mention of what has transpired in non-Christian regions, although a drama is said to be brewing in Israel. We don't hear about the disappointment of people who thought they were faithful, but weren't taken. Exactly what were they supposed to believe? Were Catholics saved, or just Protestants like Steele's wife? Is devotion good enough, and is ignorance an excuse? How many times a month did they have to go to Bible study? We don't get an explanation of the cutoff age of twelve, extending back to fetuses, for receiving an automatic ticket to Heaven.
  
  I don't know what's more miraculous: that the book was written without a trace of irony, or that the 12-book series sold 60 million copies.
  
  
• Leave this tripe behind!
  By A2XGJ56VCFOKKZ on 2005-11-23
  Someone once said, "you'll never go broke underestimating the tastes of the American public" and considering how much money this novel series made, that person is absolutely right. You do have to wonder though...with all the money this series made, who's the real anti-Christ? Rightwingnuts love to hawk the U.N. as the bad guys, with Black Hawk helicopters in Montana, a foreign Secretary General, and a legislative body where America for all its power and wealth only has one vote. Of course an evangelical Christian is going to think the U.N. Secretary General would be a candidate for the anti-Christ.
  
  However, I've heard many of the Revelations-believing Christians say that the anti-Christ would deceive many of Jesus' followers. Who fits that description? Our very own president Bush! Think about it...the only people he's fooling with his Christian platitudes/references are evangelical and fundamentalist Christians. The rest of the world can see through his rhetoric and judges him based on his actions. If this novel is going to be serious about relating Biblical prophecy for modern audiences to grasp, they could have come up with a more realistic anti-Christ: a conservative Republican president who is beholden to his capitalistic and militarist handlers; someone who fools the very people he claims to represent.
  
  As you read the entire series (if you aren't bothered by the bad writing, cardboard characters, cliched and unrealistic scenes/situations), you'll learn that when Jesus finally makes an appearance, he hardly resembles the Jesus we've been taught to know and love (the gentle Prince of Peace who healed people). Instead, these propagandists present a genocidal Jesus who outdoes Hitler, Stalin, and Pol Pot in the amount of people he kills. Everything is so black and white; and death of baddies is seen as justice (not the kind Jesus taught and practiced, which is nonviolent transformation of sinners into spiritual-enlightened beings who understand the harm they've done to others). Its sickening that so many good Christians can be duped by the propaganda of this series. If you disagree with my review, I urge you to think about God and Jesus and ask yourself...would you admire anyone who killed masses of people the way Jesus does at the end of this series? We don't admire Hitler for the millions who died because of his policies, yet we're willing to worship a Jesus who makes Hitler look like a two-bit serial killer? It doesn't make sense.
  
  I'm a Christian who doesn't believe in a wrathful, vengeful God. The Christ I worship is the Prince of Peace, a pacifist who healed people and whose commitment to nonviolence was such that he preferred to die than to harm another human being and save his own life. That Jesus does not exist in this series. This series is nothing but a smokescreen for rightwing political agendas which have nothing to do with serving God and humanity, but serving the corporate Capitalist agenda.
  
  
• Hate mongering and stupidity at its worst
  By A1FATAUKD1LXZP on 2005-03-12
  Just in time for Easter, this hate-mongering book is making the rounds no doubt at local Christian churches and their youth groups, and at my daughter's public school. The English teacher even has copies in her room. My daughter came home very upset because one of her-born again friends was going on and on about how the contents of this book are true and the world is coming to an end and anyone who's not a born-again Christian is going to hell. This religious-hate mongering exemplified by The Passion, mocks the fundamental principles by which the United States was founded, which was by people who believed in separation of church and state. It exemplies why one of our founding Fathers, Thomas Paine, who wrote the famous Revolutionary War pamphlet, Common Sense, was a monamist, a group adamently opposed to organized religion in any form. The primary purpose of organized religion seems to create hatred against other groups and allow gullible people to be manipulated by those in power to further their purposes. This book is a perfect example of such poisonous religious propaganda.
  
  
• NOT the best Christian book out there
  By A2OJH3S0SUNVGE on 2000-09-12
  This book and the series of sequels are pretty lame stuff. I've read about half of the first book, and I'm afraid that the only effects the series will have is:

  1. Confirm in the minds of many anti-Christians that all evangelicals are low-rent, unintellectual people who follow Pat Robertson and his ilk; and 2. Make the silly obsession with the "Rapture" a priority in many churches again. That idea was finally starting to fade along with Hal Lindsey before these books came along. True, other religions have silly sectarian groups - like the Catholics and the Virgin Mary sightings. But society is much less forgiving of evangelical Christians than any other religious minority, and I'm afraid these books will just provide more fodder for those who hate us. (They actually sell offensive parodies of the Christian Fish in stores...can you imagine anyone driving around with a bumper sticker making fun of Jews or Catholics? Anyone who did that would be pulled off the side of the road and beaten to a pulp in less than half an hour. But it's okay to make fun of us, for some reason.)

  The authors haven't even bothered to do basic scientific research; in the opening pages they conjecture that Russia will invade Israel to steal crop fertilizer - any research into agricultural science will show that the Soviet Union has huge tracts of unused farmland in the Ukraine! Growing food is not Russia's problem. After that, the writing just gets worse. The Russians try to nuke Israel - why would they do that, when they want to steal Israel's food? It makes no sense, and the whole battle of Gog and Magog is rendered in about 3 paragraphs where the authors wipe out the Russian air force with a hail storm. (Curiously, the authors don't seem to be aware that they are putting the Battle of Armageddon at the START of the apocalypse, when the Bible has this battle at the END.) I'm a 30-year-old journalist myself, and I found the characterization of Buck Williams - the star-writer of Time magazine - to be trite and shallow. Who names a character "Buck?" Rayford Steele, the guilt-ridden flight pilot, is no better. The worst character by far is Hattie Durham, an idiot bimbo flight attendant whose only crime seems to be that she's 27 years old and attractive to middle age men. She has no depth, and the way the authors constantly bring her back just so they can ridicule her for being a silly, hysterical bimbo started to irk me around page 100. I'm hardly pro-feminist, but the depictions of Hattie became too misogynistic and mean-spirited to ignore. I'm determined to get to the end, but it's degenerating into boring tripe by the page.

  On the plus side, this is THE most politically incorrect best-seller ever written. If you want a book that's willing to call Judaism "wrong," criticize bad (oops - I mean, "progressive") Catholics, slam the Vatican, depict women as weaker than men, and so forth, then these books have a certain appeal. For more serious, thought-provoking fiction with a spiritual theme, I'd recommend Stephen King's The Green Mile or The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. They both made me think a lot more about God than this shlock ever will.
  
  

• Leave it behind
  By A39BAS6VFE2L5L on 2001-12-22
  Many, many people have lifted up the LEFT BEHIND series as good Christian writing. Unfortunately, I must disagree, vehemently. As a seminary student, I wanted to at least give the first book a try, because so many Christians are reading this series and seem to enjoy it. So I tried it. I didn't like it. End of story.

  What's not to like? Well, for starters, even as a Christian I found the plotline required too much suspension of disbelief to be credible. The main characters seem bound by the authors' intention to make leaps of faith and logic that defy the imagination at times. Other Christian writers, even those who write Christian fiction, are able to walk the reader through faith struggles in a way that seems believable - LaHaye and Jenkins cannot, in my opinion. The plot seems wooden, the characters even more so, and quite frankly, I disliked every last one of them from the start, a sure sign that something is wrong with the writing.

  Christian authors usually write with the intent of inspiring faith in their readers. The best of them, people like Walt Wangerin and C.S. Lewis, are able to work their inspiration without being obvious about it - regardless of faith, the story remains interesting and entertaining. LaHaye and Jenkins, however, show their agenda from the start, and their heavy-handed treatment of the story left me feeling disgusted, not inspired. As a Christian, I was dismayed at the level of intimidation in this book - I can't even imagine what a non-believer would feel.

  All in all, I felt the level of writing was amatuerish at best. Toward the end of LEFT BEHIND, I found myself extremely disinterested in the story, but wanted to finish it anyway because I felt I needed to give the authors a chance to redeem the story. It didn't happen. The climax was as bad as the rest of it - predictable, uninspiring, and emotionally flat.

  If you're looking for quality fiction from a Christian point of view, I would recommend you keep searching. Yes, the LEFT BEHIND series is a bestseller, but that's not always an indicator of quality. Try it if you like, but be forewarned - it may not be worth your while.
  
  

• Perverted fantasies of religious fanatics
  By AJA81K6Q38UMN on 2005-05-13
  There sure was a lot of dialogue in the book. No detail. No description. Well, other than we know Hattie is attractive, Rayford is big and Nicolae looks like a young Robert Redford (ya can't have the Antichrist looking like a handsome CONSERVATIVE, can ya?). Having read Lahaye's lunatic ramblings in "Mindsiege", I fully expected this book to be off the deep end, too. I am surprised he and Jenkin's didn't describe Carpathian as a socialist-humanistic-homosexual-liberal-democrat. I guess that comes in the later books. The difference is - this is meant to be fictional. But it isn't even good fiction. What I found striking is that the President of the U.S. is basically a non-factor in their distorted imagination of biblical passages other than to congratulate Nicolae later in the book. And I love how the main characters are more concerned about their own personal issues (like their own salvation) than actually reaching out to people devastated by the incredible loss of life all over the world as a result of this "rapture". Yet Chloe and Hattie find time to hit the beauty parlor!?!?! I'm glad we can still get a haircut after the Christians disappear! What about the financial markets, Wall Street, banks??? What happens? Where did these people get their money? What happened to the Catholics? Were they raptured? How about the Muslim world? How are they going to take Carpathian schmoozing with Chaim? Too many loose ends, too many items of importance missed or overlooked, too much paranoia. (Do they really think people would be more concerned about the survival of the abortion industry than their own well-being after such a catastrophic event???). And why is God so concerned about keeping children under 12 from going through the Tribulation? He seems quite content with children having terminal illnesses, getting molested, murdered, or worse - NOW. The scariest thing of all is otherwise bright people actually believe this stuff, or something like it, is going to happen...and now they're running our country. Hmmmm.....it IS scary!
  
  
• I wish I would have left this book behind.
  By A1ZW8NM6O2FSMW on 2005-07-13
  I'd have to say "Left Behind" wins the award for worst novel ever...
  
  
• There's No Nice Way To Put It
  By A31DX5XQ9WYGJC on 2004-08-06
  This is the worst book I have ever had the misfortune to lay eyes on. I have read unpublished fanfiction by 13-year-olds with more believable characters and compelling prose.
  
  The characters' actions are ludicrous; the dialogue is eye-rollingly painful; the writing is juvenile and full of errors; the plot is convoluted and nonsensical; the theology is insulting, simplistic and offensive. If you have any measure of taste, stay away from this one.
  
  
• Absolutely fascinating
  By A2QE833CNK43S1 on 2005-11-07
  I can't stop reading these books. It's partially the unbelievably bad writing; partially the team authors' total ignorance of world history, religion and culture, which results in hilarious descriptions. (For example, in the second book, an orthodox Jewish rabbi stops at a Jerusalem cafe serving shrimp.) Parts of the books would be laugh out loud funny if they weren't so frightening.But the truly fascinating part is the number of people (tens of millions) who actually find this hate-mongering trash to be inspirational. I recommend that everyone read Left Behind (take it out of the library --- don't buy it!!!) to learn what a good part of our country actually believes. Wow.
  
  
• Despite juvenile writing, this is a thought provoking book
  By A249O6EUDAK68S on 2000-03-18
  Without giving away where I am in MY personal relationship with Christ... :-)

  I offer the following observations: First of all, after reading so much fiction in which the forces of evil are given a staring roll (Stephen King, et. al.) it is refreshing to read a novel where a greater good exists and is given the focus. I'm not sure I understand the people who complain that they can't buy the premise of the whole book. We never have that problem with horror novels do we?

  Secondly, the authors, admirably, don't succumb to the temptation of using sex or profanity to make the story more appealing to the average reader. I applaud them for this. I also applaud them for striving to keep the "story" true to their interpretation of scripture. Again, you might not agree with their vision of the rapture and the end-times, but if you let that get in your way, then you've missed the point.

  That said, the authors don't have the writing skill to draw the average reader (meaning someone who didn't know this was a "Christian novel") in without either boring them or offending them with some pretty hard core scripture interpretation presented as part of the story. Catholics beware. Jews beware. Muslims and Hindus beware. There is a high risk that you will be offended, especially if you continue to read the series. On the other hand, you might come away with a better understanding of where fundamentalist Christians are coming from.

  The authors had a wonderful idea and even have a great outline of a story. Unfortunately they lack the skill to make it work on anything more than an elementary level. There are far too many holes in their writing. For some reason, I keep comparing "Left Behind" with Stephen King's "The Stand" which also deals with a battle between good and evil and the decimation of the human race. King's writing left me with mental images of the destruction and horror those "left behind" had to face. I wasn't left asking myself, "Mmmm, I wonder how they cleaned up all the bodies and wreckage from the car wrecks and plane crashes the "Left Behind" authors merely allude to. I also cared about Stephen King's characters. The characters in "Left Behind" are incredibly one dimensional and stereotypical. At the very least, I wanted to know more of the thought process each went through prior to his or her conversion.

  There was also a whole lot of suspense and believable conflict between people in King's book. I can't say that about "Left Behind." It's very predictable, and oftentimes quite implausible: What journalist, let alone one with Buck's reputation, would ever bring a woman he's known for two days into a meeting with a world leader just to introduce her?

  The folks who are writing the glowing reviews for "Left Behind" are no doubt born-again believers. But they are the choir! The authors could have reached the masses!

  For many many reasons I wish the authors were better writers.
  
  

• Stodgy Repressed Men Making Money Off of Other's Worries
  By on 2000-06-13
  Idiocy! Hundreds of pages of idiocy! If you're a practicing Christian and are already familiar with the Book of Revelation, I'm absolutely certain that you can make up a better, more plausible version of the "end times" than Lahaye and Jenkins come up with in this amateurish, long-winded, and pointless trash. (If you're not familiar with the Book of Revelation -- the work that "Left Behind" attempts to expound upon -- and are curious as to one perspective on "the end of the world" (from St. John, no less), read that and let your own imagination fill in the details.)

  The main characters come from the fields of politics, aviation, journalism, finances, evangelism, and "college," but the authors clearly have absolutely no real expertise in any of these fields and can't seem to put together a believable spin on what any of the main characters do. Instead, the "expertise" of the writers seems more limited to familiarity with the Chicago area (thus, Chicago gets to play as an important setting in the story) and a self-obsession with the foibles and failings that often plague particularly repressed, conservative middle-aged white Christian men in their timid and narrow little lives. As a result, the book features subtle (perhaps even unconscious on the writers' part) yet distinctly misogynistic, anti-semitic, and even racist qualities. The book even manages to deem lefties inferior! Not a single dated stereotype seems left untouched in this already obsolete "book of the future." If you wish to gain some insights in the rigid, fearful thinking of men like Lahaye and Jenkins, well, you'll get a few introspective nuggets sporadically dispersed throughout the book -- but is that really of interest to you?

  The one (and only) thing going for this book is that it's a very fast, easy read. That being the case, there is surprisingly little in the way of action, and the dialogue has the clunky artificial ponderousness of a quickly and poorly-written TV drama. Perhaps the most irritating aspect of the book is the way characters tend to undergo instantaneous about-faces in their personalities that totally violate all of characterization "foundation" that had been built up over hundreds of pages. Count on all of the main characters' personalities doing contrived flip-flops at some point in the book, not really because of any rapturous religious epiphanies, but rather because Lahaye and Jenkins needed particular events to happen in the plot, and they lazily sacrificed any realistic character development to avoid having to put any real thought into their work.

  LaHaye and Jenkins clearly have absolutely no clue as to how "the end times" will proceed, and their version of events brings implausibility to new heights. For example, the book begins with Israel as the dominant world power, deriving from their radical new-found success in the cutting-edge field of: computers? financial markets? No, no, no! Try AGRICULTURE! That's right, a nation smaller than many American states becomes The Superpower of the 21st Century solely based on an industry with greater ties to 18th and 19th centuries... A very minor example (I cite it in particular only because it happens very early in the book), but nearly every chapter of the book presents some new completely implausible fictional future event to the extent that upon finishing the book, the only thing the reader can safely conclude from all this is: if the world's gonna end any time soon -- even if it ends exactly as prophecied in the Book of Revelation from first to last letter -- it ain't gonna be anything like the depiction in the Left Behind series.

  Save your time, save your money. If you're looking for answers to important questions, look elsewhere. Live your lives to their full future potential and LEAVE THESE LOATHSOME BOOKS BEHIND, forgotten in the dusts of the past.
  
  

• Disappointing
  By A3BEL56D8NXMJD on 2004-11-24
  This book is poorly written with bad characterizations. It's pretty sensationalist and doesn't give respect to the Bible and its teachings of tolerance and forgiveness.
  
  
• Don't go looking for your theology here!
  By A7YR8QM68Q9E on 2005-03-23
  I was introduced to the Left Behind series through the film version of this novel. I thought the concept was interesting, but I found the characters uninteresting, the dialogue ridiculous, and the pacing extremely slow. Or maybe I was just blinded by my hatred of Kirk Cameron. Whatever. At any rate, my boyfriend of the time loaned me the novel so I could see if it was any better than the movie.
  
  The book does correct several things I had issues with in the movie. That does not, however, excuse what an incredibly terrible piece of writing this is. I read more challenging novels in the third grade. If you can handle Nancy Drew, you should be ready for this novel. The character development is practically non-existant. Characters seem willing to change their entire world-view over remarkably silly things, and with relatively little internal struggle. And (as was mentioned in a previous review) the margins are ridiculously large (one assumes in an effort to make the book seem longer).
  
  I'm not going to get into the theology - other than to say that I'm catholic, and I personally do not believe in a lot of things mentioned here. But live and let live I say (even if the book's authors disagree with me). What I couldn't stand was the incredibly disrespectful tone the book took towards other religions. I found the Republicanism offensive as well - because Chrisitian is not synonimous with Republican, believe it or not.
  
  It wasn't persuasive or accessible enough to be a good piece of religious propaganda, and the writing was too poor for Sci-fi. Therefore I have to rate this as one of the worst books I've read.
  
  

• Tribulation Force: The Continuing Drama of Those Left Behind (Left Behind No. 2)
• Nicolae: The Rise of Antichrist (Left Behind No. 3)
• Soul Harvest: The World Takes Sides (Left Behind No. 4)
• Apollyon: The Destroyer Is Unleashed (Left Behind No. 5)
• Assassins: Assignment: Jerusalem, Target: Antichrist (Left Behind No. 6)