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Apocalypse Wow!

Apocalypse Wow!

List Price: $5.98
Your Price: $5.98
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Skeptically Hilarious and thick with sarcasm
Review: "Apocalypse Wow!" is probably the funniest book I have read so far this year. Garner totally debunks every apoclayptic prophecy and superstition from The Revalation to Nostradamus by sarcastically pretending to believe them. This book was an incredibly light read, I read it cover to cover at a coffee shop near my college. I think this is a vastly underrated book. I hadn't even heard of it until I noticed it on the library shelf as having a catchy title.

I would say this book is a hilarious and engaging work of common sense and skepticism in society obsessed with the "X-Files" and "Unexplained Mysteries". I found particularly funny the way he parodied the obsession with names and prophecy by rearranging names in the book (i.e. Nostradamus = Stud Oarsman, Roast Us Damn!) No supersition or archaic belief is spared here, including UFOs, reincarnation, or the lost city of Atlantis.

Perhaps the only downfall of this book was the last chapter, which was somewhat anticlimactic and didn't cover anything previous chapters already didn't. But a great book nonetheless.

I highly recommend this book to any skeptic with a sense of humor.

Chris

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The End of the World is Nigh
Review: A terrific send up of the end-of-the-world timers and prophets. Putting all the enlightement (new age) and biblical end-of-time predicitons in one spot just highlights how ridiculous the lot of them are. Nicely written with a great combination of 'Oh Gosh, isn't this wonderful' straight man approach and sly digs hidden (or not so hidden) throughout the text.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: What's the joke?
Review: Garner concludes his analysis of the book of Revelation (in particular) by correlating its vision with the persecution of Christians under Nero. This banal and misdirected exegesis eases his conscience over having to take the myriad of apocalyptic visions of the scriptures (Isaiah 24-27, Jeremiah 30, Psalm 83, Daniel 7-12, Zechariah 12-14, Zephaniah 3, Joel 2, Matthew 24, II Thessalonians 2, etc...) seriously. If you want to mock the scriptures, Mr. Garner, go right ahead. We live in a free country. However, there is no reason to alleviate eschatological tension by revealing that the Bible "doesn't really teach an imminent Armageddon." It does, and I don't think any honest invidual could deny it, regardless of the commentaries to be found in his library.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: or "Ow, my Karma is killing me!"
Review: Garner has some fun with "New-Age" sensibilities and so will the reader. A comic look at some trends that are sometimes so innately amusing it seems to be redundant to make fun of them.Think of it as an issue of The Skeptical Inquirer (with a sense of humor)

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Enjoyable work, but redundant.
Review: Humorous take on the extensive theories predicting how and when the world may end. Readers will find the sketches more entertaining in small doses.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The perfect book for those wittty readers
Review: If you have a sense of humor for wit and riotous sarcasm, then this book is perfect. A combination of facts with sarcasm, this book had me laughing the whole way through. However, If you're as closeminded and slow-witted as some of these other reviewers then maybe you shouldn't be reading any books. OUCH!!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Since the END is near, let's go out laughing at ourselves
Review: James Garner, "Jimo" to those who know his secrets, doesn't just write satirically, he lives that way. His jaded eye allows us all to see our own silly reflections in his writing. "Apocalypse Now" is honestly funny. Maybe it was released too early, as this book about the hoopla surrounding the new millenium actually gets funnier (and more "true"?) the closer we get to THAT DAY. Of course, no one can quite agree on when THAT DAY will come. You've gotta read the book so you can make an informed, personal choice of how, and when, to meet your fate. I'll probably be in bed. Read it, if for no other reason than you'll learn the definition of "Pole Shift" - it has me chuckling months later.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Simply quaint
Review: Luckily, nothing momentous happened when the year 2000 came to be, and we can now crawl out from under rocks and out of bomb shelters and openly laugh at our now silly-seeming fears. Or maybe it's just James Garner. Aside from a few interesting gags and factoids, the humour of this Y2K spoof is muddled and repetitive. The chapters cover literally everything from divination to prophecy to Y2K preparations (not to mention the significance of the year MM to McDonalds Corporation), but I couldn't bring myself to anything bigger than a quaint smile.

This book is not for the devout believers. Do notice than in Garner's dictionary, the words "eschatological" and "scathological" are separated only by a single syllable.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Aww, the "politically correct" gimmick has worn thin
Review: Okay, but much less funnier than his others and The Optimist's/Pessimist's Guide to the Millennium

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Not with a bang, but a snicker.
Review: Okay, so the millenium has passed, but there are still some who say that apocalyptic doom is just around the corner. James Finn Garner has taken all this doom and gloom and dissected it with a satirist's wit, hopefully putting all your fears to rest. Imagine the skepticism of a James Randi combined with the irreverence of a Michael Moore as he tackles everything from the Bible to UFOs. Maybe now you'll be able to sleep at night. I recommend reading this with Stephen Jay Gould's QUESTIONING THE MILLENIUM.


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