Rating  - Not Recommended For Children
This is the fifth book in this series. In my reviews of the first four, I've laid out a number of reasons why this series is really, truly awful. Oh, sure, I could point out some stuff here, too. Like some of the stereotyping (saving LaHaye/Jenkins from the hard work of creating characters)...
On Abdullah: "Buck wondered what he did before becoming a believer. Maybe he'd been a terrorist" (364).
Rayford on his daughter, Chloe: "She's also very pregnant, Buck. That floods the body with a hormone wash and turns a woman into a mother hen" (367).
Or, how about the complete lack of actual story events or drama?
Ken Ritz on urgency: "We've already won....It's just a matter of going through the motions. The Bible's already told the story..." (160).
I could, if I chose, talk about the perverted morality presented here, and the unexamined hypocrisy in the heroes (and thus, one infers, in the authors)...
Tsion Ben-Judah on God's love, p. 156: "God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. That is the reason for this entire season of trial and travail."
God is not willing that any should perish? Really?
Tsion Ben-Judah on God's love, pp. 160-161 (aka 4 pages later): "The great wrath of the Lamb earthquake devastated the globe...the first three Trumpet Judgments alone scorched a third of the earth's trees and grass, destroyed a third of the oceans' fish, sank a third of the world's ships, and poisoned a third of the earth's water..."
Oh, uh, I see...
But, to be honest, this is all ground that I've covered before and am likely bound to do again, before I'm done with this wretched series. So, instead, here I'd like to just point up something that I find really funny about this whole ordeal -- there is a Left Behind series for children (Left Behind: The Kids).
Forgetting for a moment the absurdity of LaHaye/Jenkins doing everything within their power to milk this series (that'll be the meat of Book 13's discussion, if I ever get there), I really wonder how this series can be made *more* for children than it already is.
* The language, syntax, grammar in this series is as easy as can be. All dialogue, no description. I'd guess 3rd grade reading level, tops. (I swear, at one point Rayford even defines the word 'therapeutic.' In the story, it's for the benefit of another character, but I think it's actually there for the intended audience!)
* The subject matters put vanilla to shame and makes it wish it were a blander flavor. Even before all of the main characters converted -- back in their free-wheeling days without the Power of Christ in their lives -- none of the troupe did anything really worthy of censure. Rayford *thought* about fooling around on his wife. Buck Williams, 30 years old, living a jet-setting life in NYC, was a virgin for cripes-sake! There is no sex. No swearing. Violence less than you'd find on any given Saturday morning cartoon. Most of the "plot-events" are characters evangelizing to one another. Have you *been* to a fundamentalist party? I have, and it's kind of like one of those.
* There's no gray morality. No difficult choices for anyone to make. The good guys always agree with one another (and, in fact, sound roughly the same) and the bad guys always twirl their moustaches. Disney routinely shows more depth in its characters, both heroes and villains. I mean, in the Sorcerer's Apprentice even Mickey crossed the line more than these people ever do!
The only reason why I wouldn't recommend this to children is because I like kids, and want to see them enjoy the books they read. They'd put this stuff down early, because it's *too* easy, tedious, and flat-out dull. Adults can read it because we've learned how to persevere through poor writing, and several of us are masochistic in that we finish the books/series we start no matter the pain of it. Also, I'm sure that many Christians out there convince themselves that these books are "good" because of their basic philosophical sympathies with the authors.
But these books aren't good. They aren't even decent. Though I'm not Christian, I still believe that a person can be one *and* still be able to discriminate between good and bad fiction. This series, which makes the idea of a kid-level version redundant, will reveal itself to any discriminating reader as bearing the Mark of Beastly Bad Lit.
Rating  - Love Enjoy... and Devour!!
I really enjoy this series.
Although it has some minor flaws... such as the somewhat dry writing style, scarce characterization, and the fact that the series seems without end, I couldnt help myself but to be sucked into the plot. I admit, it could be better, but I couldnt put it down and devoured the book in as little as 4 days.
Rating  - My Stars are Diminishing....
Ok, This book is ok,it's a bit silly at times, unbelievable at others. I am starting to agree with everyone else that this could have been a whole lot better if they hadn't have stretched it out. Because all they are doing is rewording the passages from the previous book into the next one and so on. I have almost given up, but since I already bought the majority of the books, I want to try to finish it. I am glad that I purchased them from a library book sale, so they didn't actually make money off of me. The books that I am missing...I will probably just skip.
Rating - Just one more book in the all-encompassing, enthralling, and utterly absorbing Left Behind Series
From the very first letter of the alphabet that my eyes looked upon inside this series of books, until the very last period of the very last sentence, I was hooked. Each one of these books absorbed my attention like no other book has ever done in my life. Biblically sound, theatrically entertaining, and brilliantly written, the Left Behind books will inspire you to dig into God's word and take the pieces of news from your T.V. screen and match them right smack-dab up with the prophecies of the Bible. Your hair will stand up, your heart will race, and you will find yourself helplessly caught in the suspense. Once you finish one of these books, you will desperately race to your computer screen or your local library to pick up the next one!
Carrie Lynn Jones
Author of It All Began... When Jesus Gave Me Sneakers
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