A novel of the earth's last days.. (Left Behind - Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins)

Member Name: kjl12

Product:	Left Behind - Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins
Date:	02/04/05 (84 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: compelling, page-turning, very well-written

Disadvantages: not always easy to find

The background.....

The first thing that you nnotice when you pick up a copy of this book (or are given one as a gift, as happened to me) is that it actually has two authors who live in different parts of the US.. Dr LaHaye (www.timlahaye.com) is an academic expert on biblical and prophetic studies - that is to say he's an expert on biblical ' end time ' predictions, and Mr Jenkins (www.jerryjenkins.com) is actually the novelist. Tim had the original idea and his agent put him in touch with Jerry.
Left Behind was first published by Tyndale House in 1995 and they have just released a special 10th anniversary edition of the novel. It was originally commissioned as a trilogy expected to sell100,000 copies. In actual fact it is part of a series of novels which have sold millions worldwide.
Here is the full list of titles - believe me when you've read the book you'll want to come back to this list as you will want to read more..
1. Left Behind
2. Tribulation Force
3. Nicolae
4. Soul Harvest
5. Apollyon
6. Assassins
7. The Indwelling
8. The Mark
9. Desecration
10. The Remnant
11. Armageddon
12. Glorious Appearing

As you can probably work out from the titles, the main idea of the series is looking at what it means to be living in the end times, fulfilling the biblical predictions from the book of Revelation in the bible. That does not however mean that you need any biblical or Christian background to read these books

The book itself...

The subtitle of the book is 'A Novel of the Earth's Last Days', but in many ways it is much more than that it is the story of how some momentous events personally affect a small group of characters centred around Rayford Steele, an airline pilot.

This is how LaHaye describes getting the idea for the novel :
"I came up with the idea while sitting on an airplane. I saw the pilot flirting with a flight attendant. He had on a wedding ring and she didn't. I thought, What if the rapture were to occur now and the pilot was left behind but his wife wasn't? That was the first seed of my idea."

The novel opens with exactly that scenario, the married Rayford flirting with a airhostess, but suddenly an ordinary scene changes into an extraordinary one. Millions have disappeared all over the world in the blink of eye, leaving their clothes in neatly folded piles. All of the children are gone and millions of adults. Rayford needs to piece together the truth about what has happened and the reality means that the turmoil has only just begun...

My reaction....

This book had a profound affect on me - the authors claim it can change the way you look at the world and they are right. I'm coming at it from the perspective of a committed Christian, but I believe this book will have you hooked whatever faith you have or don't have. I know people often say 'I couldn't put it down' but with this book it was literally true - don't start reading it when you've got somewhere else you need to be...

The practical details..
The authors are Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins
It's available on www.amazon.co.uk for £4.79 or £11.78 if you buy it with Tribulation force. They're not always in highstreet bookshops, but Christian bookshops nearly always stock them or will order them for you.

A final thought from an Amazon reviewer:

"A friend recommended this book to me when it first came out and i snubbed it because i am not religious at all! i got bored after finishing several other books and thought "WHY NOT" well i havent put it down since! "

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