The Last Day

Rating:
Summary: Very different!
Review: Well, this isn't your garden variety suspense novel, is it? Can't remember the last time I found a book so fascinating and unusual. VERY intriguing plot! Turned my head around so often I feel like a corkscrew. The messiah figure is truly an archetype of literature. Never encountered any character quite like her. Also found Jon Feldman a very appealing character. His unique journey was remarkably sensitive and profound. I'm amazed at the number of reviews I found on this site--I stopped reading after 100. Wonderful to see this book has gathered such a vocal and devoted following. Add me in as one of its biggest fans.

Rating:
Summary: A Shame
Review: A shame to see a great idea wasted because the author lacks the skill and imagination to bring it off. Anti-religion tireades and tangents don't in themselves enlighten or entertain. James Morrow, master iconoclast could have done wonders here. Definite paperback stuff.

Rating:
Summary: Great read
Review: One of the best books I've read in a long, long while I understand it's being made into a movie. Can't wait. If they stick to the book's storyline, it will be one fascinating movie to watch. Wonderful book!

Rating:
Summary: Jeza rules!
Review: A major-release novel from a megapublisher makes a bone-jarring tackle on one of society's most nettlesome problems--religious self-righteousness, intolerance and hypocrisy. The central character, Jeza, the female messiah, is wise, eloquent, inspiring and altogether magnificent as she takes on the world in this truly fascinating and uniquely creative masterpiece. The story, the message, the suspense and the sheer entertainment this novel delivers is unsurpassed in any book I've read in years. If only ministers, priests and preachers would stop thumping their bibles long enough to read this insightful and explosive story, all of society would greatly benefit.

Rating:
Summary: A mind-opening journey
Review: I am hesitant to send in my thoughts here because, as an ex-Catholic priest, (now happily married, with two children), perhaps others may find my opinion to be simply too biased. But that having been said, I must confess that I found THE LAST DAY a particularly enthralling story. It is exceptionally clever and unexpectedly authentic. The detailed revelations into the internal machinery and mentality of organized religion ring startlingly true. I can attest from personal experience that the attitudes and practices of the Catholic Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, for example, as depicted here, are entirely consistent with the way that esoteric body operates. The internal politics, the self-serving intrigue and often-bitter and ruthless turf battles that take place within this hallowed institution would astound the uninitiated. THE LAST DAY captures this elitist atmosphere perfectly. Also a pleasant surprise is the theology presented in the story, which throws down a persuasive guantlet at some of the very disengenuous inconsistencies of my Church that I myself wrestled with so many years ago. Yes, it would appear that even the presence of a bona fide messiah (a finely crafted character in this story), cannot change the world's inflexible religious institutions. Certainly, as this novel depicts, if the closed-mindeded ruling bodies of many world churches are incapable of change, the future is bleak, with even fewer priests and clergy left to proselytize the brittle, aging dogma. I congratulate the author of this novel on a very rich and enlightened tale.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Suspense Thriller
Review: Fluid, engaging and fast paced. As a suspense thriller this book was superb. This writer is, in deed, a craftsmen, with an intricate story, very expertly told. I've not recommended it to anyone that's not been able to put it down.

Rating:
Summary: Dead-on accurate
Review: Having just finished this novel, I can see why it has generated such controversy. It seems some people will do and say anything to discourage people from reading it (see below). Nothing hurts quite so much as the truth. Especially when it is so ably and cleverly revealed, as it is in this refreshingly brash novel. The Last Day is perhaps one of the most devastatingly effective indictments of religious hypocrisy published this decade. Effective because its message is couched in an uncommonly rivetting suspense thriller. Accusations that this novel is a poorly written rant are thinly disguised efforts to censor its message. The prose is compellingly powerful, and--most upsetting to religious stuffed-shirts--quite inspirational! I challenge anyone to quote and critique any of the parables from the book (there are four sensational ones) to contradict that. As a former Baptist, I can appreciate that some people feel outraged by the issues raised in this novel. At one point in my life, I would have felt the same. But trying to supress the issues, rather then presenting intelligent counter arguments, is the stuff of fascism and totalitarianism. On this day of our nation's independence, I feel motivated to speak out for freedom of thought and expression. Unfortunately, the way many religions conduct themselves in this country, there is no room for dissent, and certainly no tolerance for differing opinions. I believe books like The Last Day do liberty a great service in so masterfully pointing out the arrogance and narrow-mindedness of this Big Brother mentality. Let the Thought Police say what they will about this novel, they can't silence its universal message.

Rating:
Summary: Catholic Expose
Review: Paganism and idolatry are crushed by Glenn Kleier's sister messiah as Jeza rampages through the Vatican and brings the pope to his knees. A book that will speak to generations! Kleirer is a truly great writer who speaks to all who see the evil in Romanism. Just excellent and should be read by every Roman Catholic so they will accept the truth.

Rating:
Summary: Thoroughly enjoyable
Review: A classic tale of dark intrigue and mystery with a jolting message that will anger some readers, but delight most. Fair is foul and foul is fair as the world struggles with the truth behind a beautiful young woman who arrives in spectacular fashion to declare herself the Daughter of God. She rocks the established religious order with her gaul and her compellingly argued, iconoclastic revelations. Packed with irony and controversy (Religious scholars will pick up on some interesting metaphors and biblical parallels ex: note the initials for the name of the laboratory in the Negev Desert). There's a boldness and an audacity to this story that elevates it above typical suspense thrillers. It delivers a well-reasoned message about society and the way people are manipulated by religious self-righteousness and rigidity. The old never likes to make way for the new, and when threatened, will often go to ugly extremes to preserve the status quo. At it's simplest level (and this is a complex story) "The Last Day" is a morality play. But more than this, it's a revealing insight about personal integrity and courage--and the will to choose between truth and self interest. A first rate mystery with lots of twists and surprises along the way.

Rating:
Summary: A powerful story
Review: I found this novel very well written and compelling. It also brings an important message to the fore; a message that has been largely ignored in current mainstream fiction--the myopic shortcomings of organized religion. It seems that many people today are finding the narrow, judgmental attitudes dictated by their particular faiths to be contrary to the tolerant, forgiving nature exhibited by Christ Himself. In my opinion, the hypocrisy, materialism and self-righteousness of the "holier-than-thou" crowd needs to be called out and exposed as the direct antithesis to Christ's message. This book does so in a very stunning, entertaining, and suspenseful way. I literally could not put this book down once I started it.