Rating: 
Summary: Not for the thin-skinned
Review: It always amazes me how sensitive people are about politics and religion--especially religion. Just let anyone make the slightest critical remark (forget whether or not it's true) about someone's sacred cow, and Lord have mercy! If you take offense at the critical points this novel makes about your particular brand of establishment religion, then you deserve the ulcer. Anyone who reads current events knows how true this novel is about the serious problems going on with most organized religions today. God has taken a back seat to money and power, and if you don't believe it, just see how long you last in your organized religion if you refuse to tithe or neglect the collection plate! Christ's principles have been compromised and diluted by nearly all established religions, and this novel does a beautiful job illustrating that. Ask yourself whether or not this is true: how could the pope, riding down the road in one of his Rolls Royces, recognize the humble peasant walking in tattered robes, beard and long hair on the side of the road as Jesus Christ? Does this novel make some good points? You bet it does!
Rating:
Summary: Go, Jeza, go!
Review: How much would you give to have God Himself come down and expose all the phony, money-driven televangelists, prophets of doom and mercenary religious leaders of the world for the self-serving individuals they are? Well, here's your chance, in a novel that is hilarious, brilliant and as brutally honest as they come. Jeza, a female saviour, stands up to the biggest religious bigwigs in the business--and the results are often hilarious and always spellbinding. But this book is not without its darker, scarier moments, and you will squirm through some frightening wickets before you are allowed to experience the wrenching, mind-boggling ending. Some readers will take serious offense at the way this novel pokes fun at organized religion. If you have no sense of humor about your religion, read something else. But for the rest of the world, this novel will ring true, loud, clear, and fascinating!Also recommended: Bag of Bones, The Stand, Cryptonomicom
Rating:
Summary: Superb thriller
Review: This is an excellent, well written supsense thriller that kept me on nervous edge from beginning to end. The research that must have gone into this tight story is amazing. The author depicts the scenes and locations so graphically, the action and the characters so believably, that you feel as if this story is really happening. The surreal twists and turns kept me off balance the whole way and left me breathless at the end. As good a thriller as I've ever read.
Rating:
Summary: A real page turner
Review: I bought this book for my husband's birthday and then started it and couldn't put it down. I made him wait! I consider this the best book I've read in many years. A real page turner and I give it high marks for both entertainment and suspense.
Rating:
Summary: Couldn't stop reading it
Review: Even for a non-believer like me, it was a great read. I'm sure the true believers will enjoy it even more than I did. It truly depicted the problems with modern day religions, taking a particulary strong stand regarding Catholicism. The Catholic Church for a long time has used and abused its responsiblities and this book demonstrated that. Other religions were not spared, either. Anyone who understands the difference between true religious beliefs and organized religion will see the obvious truths espoused here.
Rating:
Summary: A tough topic well handled
Review: What starts off a heart-pounding suspense mystery turns into the most compelling spiritual journey you can imagine. This is an utterly absorbing, fascinating book that edify's as much as it terrifies. It shocks and it surprises, but in the end, best of all, it satisfies! This book takes an unvarnished look at the way politics is played in the upper echelons of the big-name religions, relying on actual historical events and scripture to mount a compelling defense of spiritual freedom. (Die-hard advocates of organized religion be warned, this book is your worst nightmare!) Fast-paced and exciting all the way through, it's a definite must read going into the turn of the millennium.
Rating:
Summary: Explosive!
Review: I loved this book! It grabbed me from the first chapter and never let go. I'm still caught up in it. The plot is about a young female mystic pitted against the most powerful religious leaders in the world, and the confrontations are fierce and rivetting, easily the most exciting novel I've ever read. I am so amazed at the way this story confronts head on some of the touchiest issues of the day, and reduces them all to such reasonable, clear perspectives. The case this novel makes for fairness and balance among religions is truly inspiring. The world would be a far better and more peaceful place if more people could exercise this level of logic. An uplifting story.
Rating: 
Summary: Pretty Dumb
Review: I didn't find this to be a novel of great ideas, as some have. In fact, the ideas, plot, and writing were of the same quality - weak. It was all very politically correct and the author picked a popular strawman for a target of abuse: the Church. Some of the criticism was dead-on. Some was off-base and ugly. I can't say I enjoyed the book much, but I'm not really into trashing other folks' faith. And there is prejudice here, plenty. It's been done before, much better, and this is not exactly the caliber of author to break new ground-LOL!
Rating:
Summary: AN EXCITING EXPERIENCE!
Review: This book has kept me up 'till 6.00 in the morning - until the last page was read and I could sleep peacefully for the next hour ;-) It is one of the most thrilling books I've ever read - still, in the german translation. The story is original and fairly new (I can only tell it has some similarities to Mark Bailey's SAINT, which is also a great book if you're interested in the topic), the style is exciting. I love the respectless approach to mass religion, and the showing of all that desastrous fanaticism it leads to. Yet, this book should have at least one thousand pages - not because I like it, but to go more in depth. What is only mentioned on the border or in one single sentence are the things that would have the greatest impact on our society - all that destruction of common and comfortable structures of lies and conspiracy in the catholic church, a part which I believe is fairly nice and soft (because the truth is much worse I believe; but one can't totally demolish the catholic's believes ........) So, people out there - even if you're not a die-hard fan of millennium thrillers, the Church or some kind of Messiah - read this book! You'll love it!
Rating:
Summary: Much merit to this novel.
Review: As suspense novels go, most do little more than entertain, and at best, just leave you with a bit of a thrill. What I appreciate most about THE LAST DAY is that it not only achieves a superior level of suspenseful thrills, it also communicates some profound points about spirituality. I for one found nothing in this novel that indicates bigotry or hatred of Catholics, as one reader has suggested, or hatred of any religion, for that matter. The fact that this novel offers criticisms of organized religion does not, in itself, constitute bigotry. Particularly given that the criticisms leveled in the novel have clear historical validation. I think what people are misreading is the metaphor that the Catholic Church represents here. This is a book about personal, individual spirituality vs. the regimented spirituality of institutionalized religion. This novel challenges people to think outside the spiritual box, and certainly that can be threatening to those organized religions, such as Catholicism, that allow little flexibility in that regard. Although this novel poses some frighteningly realistic scenarios, and raises some very credible issues about intolerance, materialism and hyprocisy in organized religion, readers mustn't forget, it is fiction. However, when fiction speaks important truths, as I feel this fiction does, it can help elevate human understanding. Failure to accept fundamental truths; the repression of the free flow of ideas; disrespect for the rights of the individual--these are the things that lead to bigotry. This novel should offend no open minded reader.
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