Rating: Summary: Best for last Review: This series has been a long time coming. Nearly ten years. It's finally coming to an end. (at least I think) I read this book in two days. Everything that the characters have endured with Carpatia and what carpathia has done to the world is finally avenged in this book. It's glorious.
Rating: Summary: Horrible Review: This is by far the worst and most deplorable excuse for a book I have ever read. Do not waste your time reading such filth. You want an excellent book about religion, read the Bible!
Rating: Summary: Two more to go Review: I have really enjoyed this series. I do think that it is being drawn out further than I would prefer. But I enjoy each of these books very much.Like the others, this book is a good example of what the authors view as the ideal. It is also a way to see how the author interoperates the Bible especially the apocalypse. The authors are very talented in writing action fiction. The work goes very fast and is an easy read. This is not a good book for a serious debate about the book of Revelation. The book takes a particular interpretation of that book of the bible and tells a fictional story based upon a portion of the teachings of the Bible as they are understood by the authors. I highly enjoy the series and recommend it to anyone.
Rating: Summary: Acceptable ending to an important series Review: Others have attempted to write fictionalized accounts of how the end times might play out, but Jenkins and Lahaye succeeded! They have sold multiplied millions of novels, and many of them have been read by those not committed to the Christian faith. On that score, the writing team deserves five stars. On the other hand, most of their success was based on the early novels. Many reviewers have commented that the last several books in the series seem to have dragged the story along, apparently so that the requisite twelve books could be written. These arguments are not without some merit. I picked up hope for a dynamic ending with #11 Armaggedon. The pace picked up, and the activity seemed back on track. Perhaps I was optimistic, but Armaggedon gave me great hope that the finale would be a glorious 5-stars. Not so. Glorious Appearing did some things quite well. We saw into the minds and hearts of characters who had been through so much. Vindication, relief, joy, the utter ecstasy of being in the presence of Jesus, the sense of rightness and justice as God's various enemies are judged--all these are described effectively and powerfully. In fact, the great strength and weakness of Glorious Appearing was the powerful description it contained. Rather than allowing the plot to move the story, with some description to give depth, we were treated to lengthy descriptions, with only occasional, almost incidental, movement in the story line. In essence, readers were treated to a slide show, rather than a movie. It would have been insightful to have seen into the minds and hearts of the enemies of God. What was Carpathia thinking as the end came? What about the false prophet? How about Satan himself? True, the focus was on Christian victory. However, understanding the true horror of having been eternally deceived, would have boosted this conclusion more effectively. Bottom-line: Glorious Appearing is written for the faithful--the believers. The authors must have figured that anyone who had come this far was committed. The most obvious example of this approach is the heavy use of Scripture passage quotations--some of them quite lengthy. The novel concludes by giving vivid and powerful narration of Jesus and his followers achieving victory and vindication. In this good vs. evil drama, the enemy receives far less attention. It's a feel good ending for those who buy into the premise of the series. Should you buy it? if you've bought the others you might as well. Otherwise, borrow it from a Christian friend.
Rating: Summary: Best in the series! Review: A couple months back I read the reviews for Glorious Appearing and really had my doubts about reading it, although I had completely devoured all 11 of the previous books this past December (yes, I'm slow in getting around to things). I am so glad I decided to read it! In my opinion, although this book series isn't the most well-written I've ever read, the content is so gripping, the characters so compelling, and the story so well detailed that it needs to be played out to the end, which is just what I feel Glorious Appearing did. I have heard a rumor that two more books will be added to this series. To my mind it doesn't matter whether they are or not, because Glorious Appearing wrapped up this series so well and so beautifully! I was in tears many times as I read through it, just imagining what it would be like to go through the events described, imagining hearing Christ judge me worthy of eternal salvation. I do have my concerns on a few things, however. I don't believe in the rapture, but I didn't let that stop me from enjoying the story. Unfortunately, many people are going to be duped into the idealistic rapture idea, then when it doesn't happen, what will happen to their faith? That is a sad, sad thing about which to think. I also had other concerns from reading some of the previous reviews that stated things like (I'll paraphrase) 'the God I know would never do all these horrible things!' My advice to anyone who feels this way is to pick up a copy of the Holy Bible, King James Version, and read the Old Testament from cover to cover, then read Revelation from the first chapter to the last. The reason I recommend KJV is because it doesn't mince words--it doesn't turn events into politically correct happenings--it describes them in detail, and lets us know exactly what God has in store down the road. While God is extremely merciful and extremely loving, he's also capable of great wrath, and when He's had enough, He's had enough.
Rating: Summary: A fantastic finish! Review: Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins' "Glorious Appearing" is a fantastic finish to what has been the best end times series ever for Christians. The moment readers have been long waiting for finally arrives, and all the characters see a resolution to their situation. Nicolae Carpathia finally meets his doom. Although I agree with other readers that The Christ Clone Trilogy and Conquest of Paradise are great works in their own right, I still think the Left Behind Series is king, and "Glorious Appearing" proves it.
Rating: Summary: VERY GORY and otherwise disappointing. Review: I have enjoyed all the books of the Left Behind series greatly, but not this one. One thing that greatly surprised, and distressed, me was the level of blood and gore. I understand that the events described by the authors are not supposed to be pleasant, and several billion people have been killed throughout the course of the series. In the rest of the series, for the most part, the death and violence has been relatively tasteful. In this book, however, they seem to almost take a perverse pleasure in describing in great detail the various gruesome ways the unbelievers are killed by the returning Messiah. I don't see any valid point for the level of gore in this book and it definitely turned me off. Not only that, the book was fairly boring. I am a Christian, and I have enjoyed this entire series even though I do not agree with the authors' views of the so-called "End Times" (see the book End Times Fiction, by Gary DeMars for an excellent critique of the "Left Behind Theology," specifically geared towards readers of the series). I read the Bible almost every day, but I still found the extremely lengthy speeches the characters make quoting Scripture to be rather tedious. They completely destroy the pacing of the novel and are quite repetitious. I think they would be even more of a turn-off for a non-believer than they were for me. I would think that a non-believers would feel they are being preached at, and many of the other reviews here confirm that. The other books in the series have managed to convey the Gospel message without appearing as "preachy" and without ruining the pacing of the narrative. I have read the authors' two new books, written separately: Babylon Rising and Soon. Both of them were quite enjoyable. They have the feel of the best of the Left Behind books and were refreshing and exciting. I would recommend both of them to fans of the Left Behind series who have been let down by its conclusion.
Rating: Summary: Well written but totally unbiblical Review: These guys sure know how to write a pacy thriller! But that is all this book is, folks. For what they say will happen in the End Times and what God's Word, the Scriptures, say will happen, are two totally different things. Get your kicks out of reading a racy, pacy thriller! But read what the Bible says to get your theology.
Rating: Summary: The worst one yet! Review: The first two books in this series were great and by rights drew a lot of people to the series. Unfortunately after that it started going down hill, picking up a lot of speed towards the end. This one definately deserves to be at the bottom of the heap. When it's not being completely hokey it's being preachy. It's fiction, but it's cramming out of context Bible verses down your throat along the way. I beleive in the Bible and this book does no justice to Christianity or even to the craft of writing fiction. Extremely disappointing.
Rating: Summary: Fails a difficult task Review: Writing about the Glorious Appearing of Christ and the cataclysmic events which led up to it is truly a daunting task. Words alone cannot describe the terrible warfare which will take place, nor the glory of the Lord at that time. Among the authors' goals seems to be to translate the words of Revelation into a story that modern people can understand and to encourage people to search in their Bibles for the truth. In these two things the authors have been hugely successful, as evidenced by the sales of their books. As for this particular book, it is not one of their best. The authors try to include as much Bibical knowledge as they can, and as a result they lose the human element. Some of the events seem too simplistic and the characters do a lot of joking around about the single most important event in history. The book seems shallow and anti-climactic after the buildup of the previous 11 books. I hope that this series will encourage the writing of better fiction, based on the Bible, in the future.
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