The Last Day

Rating:
Summary: A Tightly Well Written Book
Review: It hangs together well. The author captures a biblical writing style that gives the feeling that you are reading of a religious event and combines it with a modern style of writing that makes you feel you are actually living the events as they occur. The interweaving of modern day events in light of the story's subject is amusing and makes you wonder at whether the writer's premises could be true. What was most fun was reading the presented prophecies and reinterpreting them based on the story's outcomes. Overall a really good book.

Rating:
Summary: A Mess
Review: What a mess of a novel. Crude, slap-dash writing and a conglomeration of plot elements from far better thrillers. Seems to go on forever with its witless cast of stereotypes going beyond the call of duty to prove how stupid they are. Jeza, the feminist refugee from the New Age movement, offers many truly bizarre twists to Christianity and manages to be about the most unlikely "messiah" ever cloned in any mad scientist's lab. The book especially belittles every known religious faith, but is uniquely ignorant of and hateful towards Judaism and Catholicism. A very strange novel, a poor thriller, and an unpleasant, trashy reading experience. Mark Steinberg

Rating:
Summary: Can't Help But To Make You Think
Review: I didn't quite know what to expect. And as I read on, I found the author to have a vast knowledge of religious views, many of which I've considered myself, and had thought perhaps I was somewhat unique in thinking that way. The book kept me engrossed from beginning to end, not knowing how it was to turn out. You can't second guess this book. It will open your eyes. It will rekindle memories of your past experiences in church. And it can't help but to stimulate your desire to get closer to GOD once again.

Rating:
Summary: Rewarding
Review: I wish I'd been able to read this book about 15 years ago. It would have helped me through a really tough time. As it is, it's still a very meaningful experience for me to take this incredible journey. Thank you, Glenn Kleier, for having the guts to say all these noble things. There are certainly a lot of people out here who will be helped by your creativity and insight.

Rating:
Summary: Tiresome Tirade
Review: This was a downright miserable read. The author's heavyhanded diatribes, new age silliness, and simple minded theology really left me ill. Poor characterizations, lame plotting, and clunky writing help to make this dumb thriller especially tedious, irritating, and 350 pages more than I could stand.

Rating:
Summary: Top choice
Review: One of the finer reads of the year, I must say. Thoroughly engrossing throughout. Intelligent, fast moving, well plotted, satisfying ending. I highly recommend.

Rating:
Summary: Roller Coaster Ride With Too Sweet An Ending
Review: A though-provoking mixture of science fiction and religion, The Last Day has major motion picture written all over it, with the exception of protests by Roman Catholic groups! The characters are interesting, the premise surprisingly "possible," but the ending is devoid of the pyrothechnic special effects that the first 98% of the story implies. The final pages are more out of a "made for TV" after school special. It was a fun book that was hard to put down, but it does seem that Kleier has a whole closet of axes to grind with the Pope and his pals. If Speilberg wants to touch this one, the last few pages need a rewrite!

Rating:
Summary: Much food for thought
Review: This is a book that is as thought provoking as it is entertaining. I found myself unable to slow down to make sure I caught all the little nuances and will just have to read it again. But it held my interest from the first chapter till the last unlike any book I've read in quite some time. Terrific suspense, fascinating characters, very fast paced, very tightly written and plotted.

Rating:
Summary: This book has gravitas!
Review: A heavyweight novel about important, much neglected social and cultural taboos. Excellent reading for anyone who enjoys having their mind AND soul stimulated. Proves the famous Edmund Burke quote: religion is the superstition of feeble minds. Best book of 1998.

Rating:
Summary: A great source of provocative issues
Review: I'm an English student at Ohio State where this book is recommended on our supplemental reading list. Most of our class has read it, and it's been the source of some lively discussions. I can pretty much say my class is divided down conservative and progressive lines, with conservatives objecting to much of the content, and progressives cheering the book on. There is a smaller group, myself among them, who sees this novel more as literature than social commentary, and as such, I find it a marvelous, well written story. While it may be enjoyable and healthy to debate the controversial issues this work raises, in the main, I think it best to remember that it is, after all, fiction--and not the call to religious revolution that a good number of people seem to be reading into it. Enjoy the book, it's a good one. But let's not get carried away!