Title: Nicolae
Author: Tim LaHaye & Jerry B Jenkins
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers Inc
Year: 1997
From the Back: In the two years since millions vanished in an instant, a new world order has risen from the rubble. Tension crackles as the strangely enthralling leader Nicolae Carpathia consolidates his power over the new Global Community. Heads of state, financial and religious leaders, and even the media cower before Carpathia, reduced to puppets of his regime. Only pilot Rayford Steele, journalist Buck Williams, and the rest of the Tribulation Force know Carpathia for what he truly is - a dictator intent on snaring the world in his web of deceit. Amid personal heartbreak and the bloodshed and chaos of World War III, the Tribulation Force must stop him at any cost.
Personal Thoughts: Well that about does it for me with this series. I agreed with a comment on the review on the first book of the series that sometimes it's good to read blasphemy to better understand our own theology and position in society. I began reading this series because it came up in one of the bible commentaries I was using for sermon preparation one week, as well as having heard mixed reviews about both the books and the TV show. At first, the story was quite exciting - good versus evil, wondering who will win out in the end, what kind of destruction and reconstruction will happen throughout. My review of book two indicated that the plot was weakening and the theology getting harder to swallow. Well, this book was the nail in the coffin.
I don't mind books that have a couple of heroes that save the world. Fantasy and science-fiction are full of those types of stories. And I absolutely love reading dystopian literature. And I believe in the power of prayer, having witnessed what it can do to bring comfort and healing. But a story fixated on a handful of people who are going to save the world simply by praying about it, and who go around trying force people into believing what they believe in order to save their souls, it's just getting to be too much for me.
I don't think I'll be reading any more of this series, unless it is to read the last one to get the conclusion of the story.
Such a shame to stop there when the series is just begun. You said it's hard to believe that people's prayer and running around trying to evangelize was something you could not believe? 12 disciples of Jesus turned the world upside down! Or has all your education caused you to forget that nothing is impossible for God.
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