The Last Day

Rating:
Summary: Amazing novel
Review: This is an outrageously good read. Kept me rivetted all the way through and I hated to see it end. It gives you a lot of food for thought while immersing you in a tale of unimaginable suspense. Great story, excellent writing, lots of profound ideas expressed in a very unique package.

Rating:
Summary: A powerful story
Review: This ranks among the most exciting novels I've ever read. I got so hooked I stayed up till 2:45 AM finishing it, and then couldn't sleep for thinking about it. It was well worth the lost Z's, I could not have enjoyed the book more. What took me so long to finish it is the fact that I read so many of the passages more than once--not for the comprehension, but for the shear pleasure of it. The way this person thinks and expresses himself is fascinating--logical, clear and mind-opening. My favorite sections were the parables, the meetings between Jeza and the Pope/di Concerci, and the ending, which was phenomenal and caught me completely by surprise. This is a book everyone should read, not just for the story, which is mesmerizing, but for all the wisdom between it's pages. I intend to read it again--after I catch up on my sleep, that is!

Rating:
Summary: Great story
Review: This book was a surprise to me. I'm not sure what I expected, but I certainly wasn't expecting something as startling as this turned out to be. This is a complex novel presented in a very clear and straightforward way, almost like a chronicle. I liked the way the plot kept getting progressively more harrowing as the mystery deepened. The last 100 pages flew by so fast they seemed like 10. After finishing it, I couldn't get it out of my mind. It's the sort of story where there is a lot of interesting imagery and symbolism, and I read it again after learning the ending, to get the full meaning. It was just as much fun the second time through, but in a different way. If you like suspense thrillers, you won't be able to put this one down.

Rating:
Summary: A triumph of clarity
Review: Perhaps some readers don't have the open mindedness or vision to see the bare truth of this novel, but it's self-evident to anyone who knows history or has the gumption to face reality. Religion has accounted for some of the worst atrocities committed by man upon man, and this novel serves to expose the very arrogance and insensitivities which spawned many of those atrocities. More power to novels like these that dare stand against courruption and intolerance!

Rating:
Summary: A great novel
Review: I thought this novel was exceptionally well written and a very fresh and intelligent slant on the excesses of establishment religion. I applaud this work and welcome more from this innovative author.

Rating:
Summary: A breath of fresh air.
Review: In a climate of mono-dimensional, dogma-heavy religious novels this year, "The Last Day" is a brassily refreshing departure. Not only a stand-out mystery ala "The Rose," "The Last Day" is also loaded with wonderfully interesting, startlingly honest insights. Intense and fearsome one moment, tender and touching the next, there is a special, supernatural grandeur to this unusual story. The self-righteous religions of the world meet their match in the divinely-righteous character of a female prophet named "Jeza". It is a spectacle to behold--watching this tiny figure of a girl do battle with the great scholars and patriarchs of the world's organized religions. Klier does justice to these epic confrontations, giving us scenes of nearly unbearable tension and surprise, presenting characters of rich complexity and texture. Understandably, there are readers who despise this novel because it dares question some practices of the establishment religions (how, for example, the Catholic Church justifies its vast, secretive wealth while some of its poor congregation is starving to death, for one), and the book also levels harsh criticism at many other hypocrisies of Christianity. While the novel may not tread lightly on this subject matter, I would like to point out that it's unlikely a real messenger of God would either! The arguments the prophet, Jeza, raises in this novel are the very questions a real messiah would pose about organized Christianity today. But the real genius of this novel is in how all this is presented--in a tightly constructed suspense mystery that holds the reader's interest and maintains a balanced tension and unpredictability all the way to the very last page. Unlike most contemporary literature, this novel not only asks many provocative, important questions, it also presents some rather surprising (if controversial) answers. I recommend this novel for people who are looking for something to stimulate both their mind and their spirituality.

Rating:
Summary: Hot book!
Review: Wow does this book sizzle! All the way through I just kept saying to myself, "Wow! Wow! Wow!" Everytime you think you got it figured out, BOOM, itblows you away with another incredible turn of events. This is a very well crafted novel, artfully written, ingeniously suspenseful. I can see why some people get angry at the story, because it definitely pokes fun at some reigion's foibles and shortcomings. But then, the points made are good ones, and they fit right into the swirling tension and frightening aspects of the novel. That aside, it is still a thrilling, rivetting tale, and one of the finest books I've read all year.

Rating:
Summary: The new millennium is just around the corner, what if . . .
Review: . . . a messiah did return to this world? Think about it for a minute--how would the organized religions of the world respond if a truly credible, plausible messiah really did return? How would the organized religions hold up under divine scrutiny? And what if this messiah happened to be a 'she'--it would just irritate the hell out of some chauvinistic religions, wouldn't it? That's the tack this truly innovative, bold novel takes, and the results are quite fascinating and unexpected. This author holds back nothing, and when he turns his bright light on some dark corners of Christianity, it's pure fireworks. No question, this novel will absolutely infuriate some people. But if you have an open mind, there is no denying some of the very compelling points expressed here. By no means is this a politically correct story. Is it politically correct to expose the hidden wealth of organized religions, or display the contradictions of hypocritical clergy? If so, then it was pc for Christ to clean out His Temple. The only people who will find this novel offensive are the ones unable to accept the deficiencies of their own organized religions, so glaringly revealed in the course of this amazing tale. There is wonderful truth here, told in a refreshingly intelligent way. This story is an exciting, surprising page turner from first page to last.

Rating:
Summary: My favorite read of the year
Review: I've never bothered to take the time to review a book before, but this one certainly warrants the effort. I am immensely impressed with this author and the quality of thought that went into this work. The research is massive and impressive. The writing is absolutely wonderful and moving. And the story is so very unique, I don't know what to compare it to. This is definitely the finest novel I've read this year, one of the best ever. I'm taking the liberty of awarding it six stars: ******

Rating:
Summary: Insufferably Pretentious, but...
Review: While I found Last Day strictly the work of an untalented amateur and glaringly pretentious, one must give the writer credit for addressing some of the excesses of the church. Whether discriminating readers are willing to wade through 600+ pages of terrible writing to arrive at all too obvious conclusions is doubtful. Such a windy, fitfully told story hardly does justice to the injustices of the church. Here, the issues are trivialized as semi-comic plot devices to advance a series of soap opera episodes involving many uninvolving characters. Readers may wince at this cliche ridden novel's crudeness, but it's badly written meanness permeates and obscures legitimate concerns. This subject deserves the attention of a gifted author instead of this third-rate thriller-with-a-message misfire.