Rating: 
Summary: Top drawer
Review: An excellent read, full of strangeness and surprises. Sharply written, complex and insightful. Proasaic scripture and harsh, biting religious commentary intertwined with a window on society gone mad with intollerance and narrowmindedness. Salient, touching, frightening and highly entertaining. My pick of the season.
Rating: 
Summary: Disturbing
Review: Others here have well described the poor quality of the writing and generally insipid content of this thriller. But I found it's ugly and hateful nature even more disturbing. This is a very dark novel, lacking the spark of hope found in even hardcore horror stories. The author expresses his distaste for faith and orthodox spirituality in a very offensive manner and presents a hopeless view of the faithful. I found his message superficial, his understanding shallow, and his arguments strange. Besides being a bad novel, I was left with a bad feeling. I don't remember reading any other book that was so silly yet troubling.
Rating:
Summary: Reality Check - Please!
Review: If amazingly bad writing wasn't enough to kill a good story idea, the author of this book decided to create the character of Jeza and drive a stake through this novel's black little heart. Jeza, the female messiah, is a stereotypical feminist, an obnoxious twit who delivers parables for new age groupies and has the ability to bring to life for the reader the sensation of fingernails on a blackboard. Imagine 400 pages of that. I got halfway through this work of art, ignoring the poor writing as best I could, and finally tossed it aside during one of little Jeza's longer lectures on a bible she was obviously as unfamiliar with as the author of Last Day himself.
Rating: 
Summary: Just About As Bad As A Novel Can Be
Review: The author of this book has managed to get published the worst writing I have read in years. The characters and dialogue are unbelievably shallow and silly.If any research was attempted, it sure isn't evident. I'd like to second the opinions on this page that found this thing to be less than a masterpiece and echo the thought that those who think this book is a 10 really need to read more (good books, that is). If there is a rally for the Conspiracy Against Bad Writing soon, please let me know so I might do my part! The ruse that every bad review is from a right winger is a little too cute.
Rating:
Summary: Not for fundamentalists
Review: If the highest regarded literary review source in the U.S., KIRKUS, gives this novel a starred review and calls it "deliciously wicked," then no one is going to be able to convince me this book is trash. And there are just too many intelligent, thoughtful and obviously sincere people on this page who agree with KIRKUS. Those who are offended by this story are misguided in trying to stop others from being exposed to it. The problem, I feel, is that some readers are having a hard time distinguishing between fiction and reality. They are angered by some of the controversial aspects of the story and are striking out against it in frustration, as if it is a threat to their personal belief system. That this book can generate so much heat and debate is very healthy. The huge number of reviews on this page tell me this is a story that gets to people, in one fashion or another. In my view, the First Amendment should prevail. Let people make up their own minds.
Rating:
Summary: Advisory
Review: Despite all the disinformation tactics of the religious right who send in bogus reviews on this page and other web sites in an attempt to censure this novel, THE LAST DAY is an international bestseller and ranked 59th in sales of all U.S. novels in 1997 (despite the fact that it was published late in the year on Nov. 19, 1997!). The truth always speaks louder and more clearly than untruths.
Rating:
Summary: Provocative
Review: This book has it all in one package--edge of the seat mystery, unique characters, high concept storyline and thought provoking message, wrapped up in an action-packed thriller/adventure. There are lots of layers to the story, many intriguing little hints and surprises as you go. The intensity never lets up until the last page and you can never be sure excactly where it's going or how it's going to end. But one thing you can always rely on, this author will take you places you've never been and show you things you've never imagined (including the depths of the Vatican Secret Archives) in a journey that will enlighten as well as entertain. My highest recommendations.
Rating:
Summary: Exciting thriller
Review: Grishom, Crichton and Koontz, move over. This one has you all beat! A terrific thriller with non-stop action, head-spinning twists and turns and a dynamite, surprise ending. Best suspense of the year, without question. When's the next book!
Rating:
Summary: An amazing book
Review: I started reading this book because my roommate was so enthralled by it and kept begging me to. I did not intend to like it, but that's not how things turned out. Despite my doubts at first, this novel is one in a million. In fact, I've never read another book like it. Not only is the story mesmerizing and engaging, it is incredibly real and believable. I have to rate this as a classic, unique in what it says and how it says it, told beautifully and with non-stop suspense. My highest recommendations. Not at all what I expected.
Rating: 
Summary: Jesus in a thriller?...hmmmm
Review: It's not easy writing about Jesus in a fiction novel. Religion may be easier to write about, but Jesus...it better be good. As Jesus is the centre of many a religious denomination, it's funny how a global figure can create a multitude of denominations through the diverse interpretations of His life. You'd think that there'd be just one. But that's how people are. It'd be boring to have just one interpretation...evidence the reviews on this page. As for me, I read the book in less than a day. I couldn't put it down. Not because it upheld or insulted my religious beliefs...nor was it because it provided major analyses on religion and its validity...nor even because Jesus came back as a biologically engineered female with seemingly extraordinary divinity. It was because it was a thriller that happened to star Jesus Christ. I loved the way the author weaved a story that included science, technology, religion, philosophy and suspense. It was interesting to read how someone else would write about the interpretations on the assumptions about the end of the world. The author chose perhaps the most controversial angle - the return of the messiah - but an assumption and interpretation nonetheless. On quoting scripture, the author provides a scenario in the story where a subsequent intellectual and spiritual melee occurs. As evidenced by the melee of reviews on this page, it proves that scripture can't be seen in just one light. This melee within and without the book shows a healthy involvement in the spiritual realm. If you want a spiritually credible study or debate, I suggest you join a Bible study group. I assure you that the interpretations and misinterpretations within the study groups can provide great material for a movie, book or play. That's why the book is listed under FICTION - Mystery/Thriller. Not Religious or Inspirational. If you want religious, I highly recommend Joseph Grizone's JOSHUA. It is also a story about Jesus coming back...it also shows the limitations of the various major religious groups, but it's one of the best novels (Inspirational/Religious) I've ever read. The Last Day qualifies as a relatively acceptable page-turner. The author has one premis and runs away with it. He does not deviate nor rationalise the premis, giving him less opportunities to commit deux ex machina. This one premis, VALID OR NOT, constitutes a major thread in his story. Hence the disclaimer found in every fiction book that provides the author relative creative liberties by affording him/her the space that if any situation or story of a person, living or dead is similar to any in the book, it would be purely coinciental and a product of the imagination of the author. If you don't like the premis, or if the premis strikes a raw nerve, stop reading...but if you accept it as the jump-off point of a fictional story, then hang on. As far as the idea of the return of Jesus, I would just as easily have accepted a Mossad- or Ninja-trained assasin who'd save the world. It's not one of them books that cheat you in the end by introducing a newly discovered angle. But, I must admit, though, that the book roller-coasters a bit. I could have done without the Hunter-Cissy affair and the Feldman dreams. Could've been a little tighter. I skimmed through those pages...didn't think too much about those sub-plots. I also liked the way Kleier pitted personalities against each other. The myriad of reactions to the return of the messiah is a small insight to human intellectual and spiritual strengths and weaknesses. I liked the way he wrote about the agonies that one can go through faced with the shifting of paradigms. It gives insight to human frailties and the fortitude that one needs to either hang on to the comfort zone or the courage to accept new things. Many books provoke agonies, mind you. Even cookbooks provoke these types of agonies...changing from an all-meat diet to an all-tofu diet? Uh! Tear my soul apart, why don't you? Also, I can't say that Jeza is the central! character or the controversial figure in the book. It's much more the possibility of her character and the situations that can occur which make the book interesting. Interesting...not gospel. I've read better thrillers in the past. I've also read better inspirationals in the past. Combining the two can't be too much of a crime...let's not take it personally.
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