Customer Reviews

Apollyon - The Destroyer Is Unleashed (Unabbridged audiobook on 9 CDs)

5 star:		(326)
4 star:		(80)
3 star:		(49)
2 star:		(28)
1 star:		(49)

 

 

A number of people have written reviews here recommending another Endtimes suspense thriller called THE LAST DAY, by Kleier. I didn't read it until I'd finished all the LEFT BEHIND series to date, but when I did, I understood what is missing in the LEFT BEHIND books. I've never read a book that made me feel closer to the real presence of God than LAST DAY. It exceeds the LEFT BEHIND novels on all levels: plot, characters, story line, suspense, and downright fear of God. No, it's not a witnessing tool. Far from it. LEFT BEHIND is better for that purpose. But if you want a novel to make you think, and make you better understand how Man has warped religion away from God's initial design and more toward Man's purposes, LAST DAY will stand the hair up on the back of your neck. I recommend it unconditionally over LEFT BEHIND. In just one book, it covers vastly more spiritual ground than the entire LEFT BEHIND series combined, and that's a fact.

I've just finished book nine from the series, Desecration and find myself agreeing with many other reviewers. This is a good series, but not great. The characters never really come alive and the plot definitly seems to begin slowing down in order to strech it out to cover more books. Still, these novels are simple, easy reads and go into some pretty good depth when it comes to the particulars of Revelations. I could see this series as being very good for teen-agers, although as an adult, they aren't as challenging as they could be. If you're looking for greatness, I agree with many others that We All Fall Down by Caldwell and The Christ Clone Trilogy by BeauSeigneur are still the best of the genre- intellegent, well written, and very powerful.

Wasn't this series supposed to be completed by now? When this series first started, it was fast-paced, intriguing, had a great story line and was an excellent read. It was also supposed to only be a trilogy. Well, by the second book it was obvious that it wasn't going to be a trilogy and by the fourth book I don't think anyone knew exactly how many books there really would be in this series.

So now we find ourselves at the fifth book, and frankly not much has changed in the past three books. The first third of the book is spent reviewing what happened in the last book of the series, and then the remaining two-thirds is spent dragging along trying to extend the plot so this series can last for what seems like eternity.

I liken this series to a great athlete that does not retire until his career falls totally apart. This book had the potential to be "Hall of Fame" material, but with the dragging on of the series the books have lost their edge and I'm afraid all that people will remember are the last set of books in this series. They are no longer fast paced like the first two were, the plot is continually reiterated (probably so people can remember what the whole series is about) and the character development has halted entirely.

One wonders whether the authors have any idea how these books are going to end as well! Which might not be so bad if it wasn't supposed to be a trilogy!

Just before I started reading these books, I had recomitted myself to the Lord Jesus Christ. After reading these books, it became even more clear to me how serious this really was, even though I knew it before, and my faith has grown stronger every day with the knowledge I have obtained in these books together with the knowledge I have been receiving from my Bible. This book by far was, I feel, the most suspenseful and gripping book that I have read yet in the series. My heart was pounding during the escape scenes, and I wept and mourned with the Tribulation Force when a member of theirs was struck down in the name of their cause. It is truly an eye opener for me and I hope that these books can reach farther than just those who already know God, and that somehow it will touch other peoples lives as well as it has touched my own. I highly recommend these series of books. One day this will happen. Even though these are fictional books, they are biblically based and people should take that into consideration and be rethinking a lot about their own lives, and whether or not they want to be left behind to deal with the atrocities as prophesized in the Bible. Nobody wishes this upon anyone and God is giving everyone so many chances to come to him, through all the blessings that he shows us everyday, that when the time comes and he is forced to take the drastic measures as outlined in the book of Revelations, it is only to get your attention and to hopefully bring you closer to Him and realize that He is the way, the truth and the light! God bless!

In this fifth book, God's Judgment continues to pound the earth and the faithful band of believers are forced underground when Global Community Potentate Nicolae Carpathia declares them international fugitives. Hattie Durham, the former airline attendant and mistress of the antichrist, ponders what to do about the approaching birth of her illegitimate child. Rayford Steele continues to pilot Carpathia's plane, and questions the mounting evidence that his late wife, Amanda, may have been a false believer. Buck and his wife Chloe debate whether to have a child when the future of the world is so uncertain. Believers increasingly rely upon the Internet for underground communication and for following what's happening. Many contemplate violence as a way of combating the forces of evil that are overtaking the world. They gather in Jerusalem for the Meeting of Witnesses and showdown with Nicolae Carpathia. They gain a little bit of time to resolve their respective personal crises when demon locusts are dispatched as a divine plague to attack those who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.

Apollyon is a thriller that will keep you riveted until the last page. It is one of the better written of the series. One can't help but feel emotionally involved with Buck, Chloe, and Rayford and the events they are experiencing ... the excitement at the stadium, the decisions of faith made, and the agony of the non-believers enduring the bites of the locust. An exhilarating read that will keep you in suspense as it realistically characterizes the horrors of the tribulation.

The comparisons between end-times novels which have been made by other reviewers is probably useful, so here's my take on the matter.

Last Day makes no attempt at all to adhere to scriptural prophecy. It is, in fact, less accurate scripturally than The Omen movies or End of Days. If you want a fun read and don't care whether the story has any connection to scripture, it's okay.

Left Behind is an action adventure written primarily for Christians with a huge cross-over into the secular market. It sticks very closely to scripture and to prophecy of the time during the Tribulation. There is never any doubt of the authors' position and which characters are good and which are bad. Beyond that, there's been so much said about Left Behind by other readers that probably every possible opinion has been expressed. Some love it. Some hate it. Personally, I like the Left Behind series a lot.

The Christ Clone Trilogy, my definite favorite among the list, is written for a secular audience with a big cross-over into the Christian market. Through most of the 3 books you don't know what the author's position is or which (if any) of the characters speak for him. Only in the last book do you find out he is a Christian and that he is using his story telling ability to reach the lost with the Gospel and the danger that faces them if they do not accept it.

We All Fall Down is a story of a man forced to make decisions about himself and God when faced by undeniable evidence that the Bible is true. It's an interesting exploration in character but the author's development of the events of the Tribulation is muddled and very thin. The thing most Christians object to about We All Fall Down is the non-stop use of extreme profanity by the main character. It was hard for me to get past all the f-words, and I certainly would not say I enjoyed it, still it made me think.

So far, I've read all eleven Left Behind novels, and while they are not perfect, I think that some people don't give it enough credit because of unfair comparisons. People often point to We All Fall Down and The Christ Clone trilogy as better novels, and in a way, they are, but they are also very different. Left Behind seems to be more of an introduction to the subject of the End Times, a series that is reaching out to all people of different ages. It's not particularly well written, but it is clear and straightforward. The characters are not particularly realistic or interesting, but these are not character studies, these are novels that are trying to give people an overview of this concept, and they do that quite well.

To compare these to other novels with similar themes is a little bit unfair. We All Fall Down is much better written and more intelligent, but the focus of that novel is much more intensley spiritual and more of a character study that uses the End Times as a backdrop to explore complex issues of evil and salvation. It is for more mature, serious readers and it's aim is very different from Left Behind. Likewise, The Christ Clone is more of a techno-thriller, interested in exploring how, realistically the End Times could arive. I will admit that I enjoyed these other books more than Left Behind, but that does not take away from the fact that Left Behind still does a decent job with the subject. They are not great novels, but they are nowhere near as bad as some people are saying.

After taking a two year break from this seemingly endless series of end of the world novels I finally picked it back up where I had left it behind, with Nicolae Carpathia (aka The AnitChrist) deciding to show up at the Meeting of the Witnesses after all.
Apollyon, like the others before it, is a quick and frothy read that emphasizes cliffhanger action above any real dramatic tension. Think of it as Irwin Allen's Production of The Book of Revelations. What lifted this entry above a three star rating was the somewhat refreshing humor I found in it. Some of the slapstick moments (at the AntiChrist's or his Supreme Commander's expense) were quite refreshing, although Supreme Evil Incarnate treated as a buffoon does not inspire fear in me. I also have a soft spot in my heart for monster mayhem and the swarm of locust like demons at the novel's conclusion satisfied that B-movie craving quite nicely. After the disappointing Soul Harvest this was a breath of fresh air and it left me hungry for the next book in the series, which is just what Jenkins wants to inspire in his devoted readership. I enjoyed it but, seeing that it suffers from the same problems (no real dramatic tension, endless repetition of cliffhangers, Hero Death Exemption) and only moves the story forward by inches, I cannot really recommend it, but, from a personal entertainment standpoint, I give it four stars for the guilty pleasure of it all.

While I have enjoyed the series, and await the next installment, Apollyon is just a little disappointing to me. As in the second book, we suddenly have a lapse of several months in which nothing really happened, and we sum it up in a paragraph. However, the most disturbing part of the book is the astronomy reference: a shooting star that is coming toward earth, but many light years away, that maybe is not as far as we thought, that has its own light, but also reflects the light of the sun and moon and stars, ad infinitum. It's almost as if this book was on a deadline and Jerry Jenkins just did not have enough time to consult with his astronomy expert. This is what I have despised about most Christian apocalyptic novels -- the weak points that scientists will laugh at.

Having put that criticism aside, there are some white-knuckle chases and escapes, some tense moments, and there is enough here to keep me coming back for more. This is the lowest rating I have given any of the books, and I hope to see the quality return. Perhaps the pressure to expand the series to twelve caused the momentary fluctuation in quality. I expect the next ones to be better. We've been through nearly half the tribulation together. It's too late to turn back now.

I recommend this one only as a necessary bridge from Soul Harvest to Assassins. But the series still ranks highly with me!

A lot of the reviews I have read of these books tend to put it down by comparing it to other end of the world books. And while I will admit that these are not as smart or engaging as some of the the better books that cover the same topic like Fire of Heaven or We All Fall Down, I still really enjoyed them. A friend introduced me to the first book and I cut through all 12 books over the past two months. In a way, it's not really fair to compare them to some of the other books because they are trying to do different things. Left Behind seems to me to try to simply tell a great story about the end of the world. It's light, but what's wrong with that? I really felt like I NEEDED to know what was going to happen next when I finished a book and the very next day would order the next one. I call that a success. A book like We All Fall Down is obviously much more intense and thoughtful, the characters seem much more like real people, and it gives you more to think about, but why does that make Left Behind bad? Can't The Ten Commandments and The Passion both be good movies?