Left Behind (Left Behind #1)

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Summary: My New Favorite!
Review: This book is quality fiction. I received it for my birthday and finished it soon after. It kept me reading and thinking. I was eager to rent the movie after I finished it. DON'T THINK YOU CAN WATCH THE MOVIE INSTEAD!!!! The movie was terrible. Read the book. I agree that it had some low points, but few. I can't stand books that start really slow. This one introduced the plot in the first chapter. The success of this series is not surprising. Good job, Tim and Jerry. I look forward to reading the rest of the books.

Rating:
Summary: I wish I had left this book behind
Review: What an intellectually insulting book! The premise is eye catching and interesting - end of the world, evil invading earth, people banding together for the greater good. Unfortunately, the allure stops there. I found myself putting the book down several times to tell my husband what a ridiculous piece of dialogue or situation I was currently reading. People were acting and saying things in a way that was so illogical I was laughing out loud. And while the main characters are dealing with guilt and the loss of their loved ones (or being condescending and pushy about their superior religious knowledge), political leaders around the world are making ridiculous power abdications and essentially ignoring the fact that a large percentage of the world's population has disappeared. I made myself finish the book, because I think it's important to know what everyone's raving about. I understand it's also being made into a motion picture. I shiver to think that this is being held up as a good story, or in some way instructional about how the end of the world will come about. Very preachy and poorly written.

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Summary: One of the best written
Review: I know some people think this is not a correct vision of the world but they also have to see that is something that happened in the future of a fictional book. I could not put this book down. It keeps you on the edge of your seat throughout the whole thing. I have read 7 of these books in the series in less then a month. I cannot put them down and cannot wait for the next one. Do not pass this book up.

Rating:
Summary: Left Behind
Review: This is truly a great read and learning experience for Christian and non-believers alike. They tell you what the end is going to be like in a way that anyone can understand. I have bought and read all 8 books in the series, and eagerly await the next. This is a book that everyone including our world leaders should read and take seriously.

Rating:
Summary: Easy to put down
Review: To be blunt the first book of the Left Behind series could have been much better than it was. Then enjoyment level starts high but continues to decrease while reading the novel. The book has a nice cover but that is about it, right from the start the enjoyment level starts to decrease. Instantly the reader is introduced to extremely dull characters and is continuously annoyed by their cheesy and childish remarks throughout the story. Most of the situations, which the authors place the characters in are extremely unrealistic. After the disappearance of millions of people the main characters instantly convert themselves and become Jesus freaks which seems very unrealistic. Constantly throughout the book the characters successfully make the reader sick by preaching the authors thoughts about marriage, lust, and family. Now moving on to the plot of the story, which once again will let down an excited reader. At times the book compels the reader and is interesting but in less than five minutes the same reader will certainly become bored and want to put the book down. High and low periods of enjoyment are continuously prevalent throughout the book. At one moment the reader will hate the book and the next they will enjoy it. In the end the low points of the book become overwhelming and this book becomes easier to put down. In a sense the book is no more than a poor attempt to fictionalize the book of revelation. If the reader seeks excitement is might be useful to read the book of revelation. To let the reader understand this book in different terms, any movie critic would say save yourself money and rent it on video.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent Christian book to Explain Our Fate
Review: Left Behind was a great book. It was a suspenseful and captivating novel. It's about the end of time when the antichrist will come to rule the Earth and those who trust in Jesus Christ are raptured and sent to be with the Lord. So many people think the raptured ones just disappeared for no reason. A pilot comes hom eto find that his wife and son have disappeared and his daughter hadn't. The only thing for him to do was read about the Bible and he found out that they went to Heaven. His daughter wouldn't believe it. They spend the entire novel searching for God and a news reporter finds his faith and is caught up in the realms of the supposed "messiah". This is truly an awesome book that you wouldn't want to put down. It inspired me and helped me to know what to expect when the end did come. This was an awesome book.

Rating:
Summary: Worth the time
Review: This is an excellent book. Anyone that did not enjoy reading this book is afraid of the inevitable. This book is well worth the time it takes to read it, and its sequals get better and better. People mention that these books use scare tactics to lure people into christianity, I say that if these books convince someone to become a christian, than all the better. Take the time to read this book, you shouldnt regret it.

Rating:
Summary: A good Christian novel this ain't
Review: There are too many weaknesses to list here. If you really want to read good Christian fiction, pick up some C.S. Lewis books. Don't waste your time on this, just because they made a movie of it.

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Summary: I love these books
Review: I'm 12 years old but I'm a pretty fast reader and I'm in the 7th grade. I really like these books. They opened me up to what the end is going to be like (I believe it will be like this/I'm a christian) anyway I've read all 8 of the books out and they have taught me how to accually understand revelation/ which I never really could before, but in fiction form it is reallly good to understand. I want Jerry B. Jenkins to write faster because now i have to wait until the next one comes out because I'm all done. I'm gonna read his Though None Go With me next. Hurry up Jerry!!!! Well my words must be getting used up...bye...everyone READ THESE BOOKS!!!

Rating:
Summary: Leave this one Behind! It Stinks!
Review: While some people may consider this book to be an expression of their religious views (people have said as much to me), I feel that it is little more than an anti-UN, anti-East European, anti-Catholic and anti-Semitic rant. So far, I have only read the first 100 or so pages and I am completely amazed by the lack of research for this book. While it seems that the authors have the religious part down fine, their simplistic view of world politics makes me sick. For example, early in the book, there is a discussion of events that occurred in Israel prior to the beginning of the book. Supposedly, the Russians carry out a nuclear attack on Israel because the Israeli's have a fertilizer that made them rich and they will not give it to the Russians. However, the attack is deflected by an act of God with very few casualties. The shocking part is that there is no response by the US and NATO against Russia. This is explained away by saying that it was a surprise attack. What the authors fail to note is that the US and NATO spent the last 50 years building up resources to combat a nuclear attack by the USSR and now Russia. Consequently, before the missiles even reached the Middle East, massive retaliation by NATO would already be in the air. The resulting fallout would have an extremely serious effect upon Eastern Europe, thus preventing the Antichrist, who just happens to be Romanian, from rising to international power, as he would, if he were still alive, have to focus all of his efforts on cleaning up his home country. Another note to be made about this is that due to the current condition of the Russian armed forces, a visible effort would have been needed to prepare Russian forces for such an attack, and this would have been detected. In addition, no person, much less a government in their right mind would carry out such an attack, especially for something as trivial as the good fortune of another country. Another odd and disturbing feature of the book is that it seems to cast the Jews in an unpleasant light. This is shown by the fact that one of the characters comments that the Israelis hate Jesus, which is, simply put, wrong. An additional thing in this book is that it seems to be very much anti-UN. There is supposedly a group of power brokers who are said to, in effect run the world, albeit in secret. This seems to me to be awfully close to the New World Order rumors, and it seems to me that it ought to be tossed into the same heap, as opposed to being put in a book that purports to be about the Bible. Does this mean that the people who read and greatly enjoy these books while claiming that they are accurate interpretations of the book of Revelations really believe these right-wing conspiracy theories? An additional shocker was that the authors have dropped in a subplot concerning the conversion of the whole planet to three currencies, with North and South America converted to the dollar, Europe and Russia converted to the Mark, and Africa and the rest of Asia converted to the Yen. What amazed me was the apparent lack of research concerning this. To start, Europe and Russia are already well on the way to having one currency, the Euro, as opposed to the German Mark. In addition, the authors failed to consider the effects such conversions might have. For example, under the system that is in action in the book, if there were an economic crash in Peru, the value of the dollar in the US would crash. However, from what I can tell, this whole thing is going to be cast as another evil UN plot. After reading for a while and noting that the book seemed to cast the anti-Christ as a Catholic, I read biographies of the authors at the back of the book. It was there that I learned that the man who conceived the series was a graduate of Bob Jones University, which is widely regarded as being anti- Catholic. This made clear to me that these books are merely an expression of the authors' hatred of anyone that is different than themselves. In addition, this can also explain the casting of Russia, as well as Eastern Europe as a whole as a violent antagonist. To sum everything up, I would have to say that the biggest problem with the book is its racist views, as well as the simplistic understanding of world politics as well as NATO policies regarding a nuclear attack by Russia against any nation in the world.