Rating: 
Summary: Excellent for the former atheists among us
Review: An innocuous review of the "Left Behind" movie in the Wall Street Journal a few months ago turned me on to this series of books. I actually found the subsequent books in the L.B. series to be better, but enjoyed the first one immensely and the movie as well. As a former agnostic-turned-atheist socialist/radical feminist/pro-abortion ignoramous (there's a mouthful for you), I am happy to be reading simple Christian fiction and getting the Biblical education I never got in my humanistic Sunday school as a child. I fully admit I view all art in political and moral terms and always have. I am just viewing it now from the opposite perspective of what I had for over 33 years. In my opinion, the success of this series says volumes about the spiritual hunger in our society and culture, and I can only celebrate fiction that encourages either curiosity or belief in Biblical teachings. I worry that unGodliness in our culture will be our undoing. This book and series can make you think and pray, if you are willing. And the premise that a seductive global leader could come and blind the world to his (or her...if you picture the new senator from NY) pure evil, in the guise of total government control and feel-good New Ageism, hits frighteningly close to home in plausibility.As for the quality of the writing, it is perhaps not the best, although I find the books extremely readable and engaging. I am so disgusted by what constitutes "the best" these days, in movies, books, and music, that I likely am extremely out of touch and don't much care. Some of "the best" constitutes what I consider pornography and nihilism, and if anything is an antidote to those, this series is! I highly recommend the first book and the whole series to the non-atheists among us (you know who you are).
Rating: 
Summary: The truth is interesting
Review: Left Behind is the best book I've ever read.It tells the truth about the future, and will keep you interested all the way. I promise you'll love it so much you won't be able to resist buying Tribulation Force.
Rating: 
Summary: Good story despite Biblical inaccuracies
Review: I enjoyed the story despite that the rapture occurs at the wrong place. According to 1 Thess. 4:16-17, the rapture occurs once Christ returns, at the end of the tribulation. Oops. The concepts of pre-, mid-, and pan-tribulation were created recently by man.
Rating:
Summary: Very Good!
Review: If you read this book and don't make a commitment to Christ- you are a fool. It has a powerful message! I couldn't put it down and look forward to the next.
Rating:
Summary: Thought Provoking
Review: Left Behind is a fictional story based on the concepts found in Revelations and the idea of the Rapture. As a literary work it is somewhat lacking in style and true character development. I found Left Behind and the others in this series to be fast, easy reads. I usually polished off a book in one evening. In my Christian upbringing, my church never really touched on the Rapture. The first time I ever heard the term the Rapture was when I moved from New York to Texas. My Baptist friends told me of the Rapture. I found the idea of the Rapture to be intriguing. But that was about all. After reading the Left Behind series I was literally yearning to read my Bible again. I think this real feeling of a need to read the Bible is the best gift the authors of this series gives to its readers.
Rating: 
Summary: Horrible, Absolutely Horrible
Review: This book came to me highly recommended and touted. When a friend of mine said it was great, I decided to take his word for it and opened it to read. I have to say, it was horrible from beginning to end. As a Christian, not necessarily believing in the Rapture, I at least thought the book would offer some insight to this popular piece of theology. I was wrong. First, there are so many factual blunders in the first chapter I don't know where to start. I understand this is fiction, but come on! Second, what should have been the most gripping part of the book, the "Rapture" itself was completely anti-climatic. The writing is so poor it reminds me of hearing kids when I was in 5th grade class read stories they had written. Third, I know I sound a bit harsh, but this book leaves me no choice. I am usually open minded about books, and even enjoy religious fiction. This book however, had poor characters, poor writing, factual problems up the ying-yang, and was not even interesting. Don't buy this book, and if you must read it... get it from a library free for crying out loud.
Rating:
Summary: mind bender
Review: I first read left behind because a family member kept pushing it on me. Now I thank God I did. This book gave so much for a person to think about, I actually read it over and over again in my head. This book would appeal to everyone. Whether you were believers or not, I could very well promise you that you would not be able to put it down. And I can assure you the following books to the series are just as mind bending as the first.
Rating:
Summary: Don't leave this book behind!!!
Review: I've been reading reviews, and I am SO SHOCKED that people think these books are not well written. Have you read Harry Potter? Well, these books are 100 times better than those. They always keep you wondering what's happening next. Believe me, once you pick up one of these books, you can't stop reading until you finish it. But what's really interesting is that THIS WILL HAPPEN ONE DAY!!! It's just not like fiction...yeah, that's nice...uh-huh...wow, I'm glad that's not happening to me...! DUH!!! It's going to happen! I mean, if you could read a book about the future of your life, you'd read it, right? This is how these books are. They're telling you how it's going to be in the end times, which I assure you, are not far away. And it gives you characters you can relate to and mixes love and humor and religion together. Non-Christians, if you feel like I'm preaching at you, well, I'm not. I'm not saying you have to read these books. It's just a suggestion. If you're a Christian and you haven't read these books, well, it's about time you do!!! I would recommend these books to anybody. Now that you've heard my opinion, you can decide for yourselves if you want to read it or not. And for those people who rated it a 1 or something, you're missing the point!!!
Rating:
Summary: I don't mean to ruin the surprise, but...
Review: ... but there IS no surprise, really. I came to this book out of curiousity.... I had no delusion that we Jews would get a fair shake in LaHaye's and Jenkins' best-sellers, but I wanted to see just how bad it was. I came away shaking my head in shame that I am living and working alongside actual people who actually believe this.... A major theme in the book is the conversion of the 144,000 Jews apparently predicted in the book of Revelations. In other words, the authors' dream is for us to realize that our whole religion has been wrong for 2000 years. All the Jewish stuff going on, like the rebuilding of the Temple, is depicted as a stepping stone for the book's true "Christians" to trample on their way to heaven. I put the word "Christian" in quotation marks because as much as LaHaye and Jenkins would love to believe that their book is going to win souls to their cause, even mainstream Christian readers will probably just come away chuckling at all the predictable literalist, Fundamentalist touches that mar this admittedly exciting science-fiction book. The authors are clearly of the impression that by calling all alcohol "booze" they can sound real casual-like; almost as if they'd tasted the stuff themselves. You get the impression that they'd call anything "booze" -- light beer, Kahlua, a nice Merlot, Communion wine. Booze, all of it. Same with anything having to do with sex. All the good women have disappeared, of course. While the men left behind are basically nice guys who didn't happen to get saved in time, the women (including Steele's own daugher, at first), are basically harlots. Is it just coincidence that Hattie, a loose, bosomy cliche of a stewardess and one of only two major female characters, quickly becomes an accomplice to Nicolae Carpathia, a/k/a the anti-Christ? There's a lot of fun plot-driven stuff here, if you have the patience to wade through this book's anti-woman, anti-Jewish, anti-anyone-else sentiments. That's a big IF.... Luckily, I've learned for myself that Christianity is neither as small-minded nor as simplistic as LaHaye and Jenkins make it out to be. There's a right way and a wrong way to win followers to your beliefs and despite strong sales, I'm confident that the Left Behind series is the perfect example of the wrong way.
Rating:
Summary: Introduction to Left Behind
Review: This is the first book of a fairly good series. Pilot Rayford Steele and reporter Buck Williams are left behind after the Rapture of the church. As they search for their family and friends, they are confronted with the truth about the mysterious disapperances. Meanwhile, Nicolae Carpathia rises to power to eventually take over the world. The writing wasn't the best and the theology was questionable, but the story was a fun read. I couldn't put it down the first time, and even the second time it was pretty good. Personally, I think the parallel Left Behind The Kids storyline was a lot better.
|
