Left Behind: A Novel of the Earth's Last Days

by Tim LaHaye

Hardcover, 1996

Collection

Description

Fiction. Literature. Science Fiction. Suspense. HTML:An airborne Boeing 747 is headed to London when, without any warning, passengers mysteriously disappear from their seats. Terror and chaos slowly spread not only through the plane but also worldwide as unusual events continue to unfold. For those who have been left behind, the apocalypse has just begun. A repackage of the New York Times best-selling novel Left Behind. Now a major motion picture starring Nicolas Cage!.

Library's rating

Rating

(1311 ratings; 3.3)

User reviews

LibraryThing member nesum
So I finally read it. I avoided it for more than a decade, but I finally did it. I should have kept avoiding it.

I really don't have any interesting in criticizing the theology here. I don't agree with it, but eschatology is a tricky field, and I'm probably way off on a lot of my ideas too. If you
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agree with this line of thinking, I really don't have a problem with that. If you agree more with me, then great. As long as you believe in Jesus and that He is going to return, then we can have a friendly debate about the rest of End Time prophesy and keep worshiping.

But the writing here is so bad that I must speak. There are only two characters in this book who are remotely different than any of the others. The first is Nicolae Carpathea, who is the most boring man ever. His "great speech" to the UN consisted of him droning on about the entire history of the organization and then him reciting the name of every country represented. Wha-?

The other is Hattie, and she only stands out because she is the most inconsistent character ever created. She's just all over the place!

The other characters are as dull as their names.

A fifth of the population disappears (a number that is WAY high), and a few days later no one seems to remember. Huh? That seems to me to be an important thing going on there. I would expect a little more coverage of that and less of the guy who recites the names of countries for a living.

I think the theology here is wrong, but supportable, but the writing is offensively bad. I gave it two stars instead of one because at least it was a quick read and only tortured me a few hours.
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LibraryThing member sirfurboy
This book was a terrible read. I have enjoyed Tim LaHaye's non fiction works, so I feel I gave these books a fair go, but the characters seemed quite one dimensional to me, the plot pondering and long and the whole thing based on some very bad theology.

I do not entirely understand the fixation many
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American Christians have with the secret rapture. It seems that the doctrine was invented in the 19th century among a group known as the Irvingites, who disintegrated following the failure of their prophecies to come to pass, but one of whose leaders had influence in another group that then proceeded to produce the Darby study bible that became very widely used in the US. Because of the ubiquity of this Bible, the notes in it became widely assimilated as a dsitinctive American orthodoxy, and one of these doctrines was that of the secret rapture, that this book uses as its theme.

That being the case, no one should read the book with any idea that its events would actually unfold as described. Read it as a work of fiction.

But with this in mind, I read the book as a work of fiction and still I hated it. Perhaps I am too close to the errant orthodoxy that informs the storyline, because it then held no surprises for me - and the quality of writing did not save it.

My best recommendation is to non American readers - read this to get into the mind set of one popular strand of American Christianity.
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LibraryThing member mesalamb
This book is crap. I tried to read the series so I could know for myself whether it had any merit. I could not stand to waste any more time reading past the first book. There is nothing good to say about it. It is so sad that this series became so popular.
LibraryThing member LisaMaria_C
I didn't expect to like this really. Not given what I'd heard of its Christian Fundamentalist plot and themes. However, I know this is enormously popular, a huge bestseller, and I do sometimes like to read such books, to better understand their appeal. And if they're really bad... Well, I found the
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Twilight Saga rather fun as a trainwreck and read the whole thing. This novel struck me as too stupid to bother with within a dozen pages though.

This novel, part of a series, has as its basis the doctrine held by some Christian sects about "the Rapture." The idea is that in the Last Days of Earth when Jesus returns those who are "saved" will be pulled out and spared the Tribulations. So in this novel such people are suddenly whisked away and those left have to deal with the aftermath.

I admit it, I soon did feel I wouldn't get through this, that it was too much like having pamphlet-wielding missionaries crowding me in a stuck elevator. But that aspect isn't what stopped me reading. Or the subpar writing evident from the first. No, a passage on Page 8 is what got to me. We're supposed to believe that a man invents "a synthetic fertilizer that caused the desert sands of Israel to bloom... making Israel the richest nation on Earth" with "zero unemployment" and they are then able to buy peace from their enemies. This is so breathtakingly spectacularly stupid on an a scientific, agricultural, economic and political level, in comparison the Rapture is easy to believe in, and right there I lost interest in anything the authors wanted to put before me.
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LibraryThing member Evadare
As far as I know, this series might well be the worst novels ever written. The Christian blogger Slacktivist has done a better job deconstructing them than I ever could. I got as far as the third in the series this time. They're just appalling not just in a theological or ethical way, but they also
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totally fail as airport pulp thrillers because they're supernaturally boring. In fact, the only way I could get as far as I did was to go back to 'Good Omens' (Gaiman/Pratchett) and imagine Aziraphale and Crowley as my shoulder angel and demon giving it the MST3K treatment with me. Even then, they got too drunk to be coherent and I fell asleep. I keep this series here out of pure train-wreck syndrome.

Also, all the male characters have gay-porn-star names, and normally, I'd like that, but they managed to make even THAT unappealing to me, which ain't easy.
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LibraryThing member mephit
Hahaha. You know the expression "so bad it's good"? Well, that's not true of this book. Oh no.

For those unaware, it's the first book in a series written by dispensationalist US Christian conservatives: didactic works intended to promote their theology as well as being novels.

Left Behind was
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unintentionally funny. Many of the plot devices were madly implausible - a super-duper fertiliser formula making Israel richer than oil nations and thereby bringing relative peace (until the Russkies try to kill them)? Agrarian based economies don't work like that, and even if they did, money is so unlikely to solve all Israel's problems! Carpathia's fantastically moving speech consisting of reciting the names of every country?!

Overall, it was poorly written, the characterisation rather basic, and the inner lives rudimentary. On the plus side, it was readable, if clunky. On the minus, its didacticism was overt and it had a hammer for those points and knew how to use it. It took crude potshots at all sorts of targets, from the Jews to family planning.

I found it impossible to take the novel seriously and snickered long and loud. For me, the best part was the naming of "Tribulation Force" which was doubly a gift since it was very close to the end, thankfully. Oh me, oh my. Hahaha.

Needless to say, I shan't be rushing out to read any more of the several gazillion sequels, prequels and spin-offs from this stable.
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LibraryThing member Darrol
Bad and inadequate Bible interpretation along with a touch of soft porn and more than a touch of paranoia.
LibraryThing member jessicastatzer
I only read this book because it was chosen for my book club. I tried to approach it with an open mind but my reluctancy was confirmed. The book was unexciting, unfulfilling, and born from "Christian" paranoia. Do not take on this book unless you are willing to read the entire series. The author
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took 25 chapters to accomplish what could have been done in 5. The ending was no ending at all, it only sets up the next book in this very long series. In short I can't believe I wasted my time and brain cells on this book and would be more than a little embarassed to admit to reading it.
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LibraryThing member ojchase
I'd been meaning to read this for a couple decades. I have mixed feelings on the theology - it might be right, it might be wrong, and I'm not going to be surprised either way in real life. But if you take the pre-trib rapture premise as reality, this felt like a reasonable scenario. I can't really
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critique on plot, pacing, character development, etc; I am not a literary crtiic. But I do strongly suspect that it wouldn't really hold up on those levels. It's more pop fiction.

But I what I do have a problem with is the missing character of Jesus. This is Christian fiction. It is supposed to all come back to Jesus. Not a general sense of spirituality. Not morality. Not even opposition to an antichrist. Nothing but the real and living person of Jesus. And He does not appear in this book in any meaningful capacity. Now let me clarify: I'm not expecting a character walking around named Jesus. He's presumably off-page sitting at the right hand of the Father. Showing up here would not make sense. But He should be present anyway. The Christian characters should know Him, love Him, be able to explain why they love Him, and be seeking His will. They don't. (With the notable exception of Rayford Steele's strong desire to share his zombification, uh, I mean Christian faith (in what exactly?), with his family and friends.)

This was most pronounced in the video that led Rayford to his conversion. A now-gone pastor had left a video explaining what was happening and encouraging people left behind to convert. It's a partial climax to the book, and is meant to explain all his questions, and, more than that, lead to a true conversion - that is for Rayford to decide to follow Jesus. In my copy, this takes eight pages. The religion of Christianity is clearly portrayed as recently vindicated to be right as there's a lot of talk about the connections between (the pastor's/authors' interpretation of) prophecy and the recent vanishings. There is occasional reference to "trust in Christ", talk of "God" trying to get the world's attention, or of accepting / receiving Chirst as your Savior, but none of these terms are defined or explained. These references are also very diffuse, only a couple paragraph's worth spread out over eight pages. In particular, Jesus' death on the cross and its connection to your need for Jesus is almost entirely missing. But the dangers of the coming antichrist are discussed at length. He actually gets more attention; how ironic. Rayford somehow knew the right magic words to put in the prayer anyway.

Basically, you could replace the Christianity in this book with your favorite race of aliens and a few True Believers in them, and you'd get the same book. In the words of the pastor from the video tape above, "perhaps you simply didn't take the time to examine the claims of [Jesus] for yourself". You should. This book won't help with it. Put it down and go find Jesus. May I suggest starting with the gospel of John.
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LibraryThing member elizabethholloway
This book is best described as Christian pulp fiction. On the one hand is the personal story of Rayford’s conversion, overwrought and tedious, and his attempts to convert his daughter—this minute—since she could die at any moment in these dangerous times. On the other hand, there is the
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thriller angle as Buck Williams follows the dead bodies and prophecies to the Antichrist’s doorstep. For people who share the author’s beliefs, this story is no doubt compelling. For me, it certainly had some interesting moments but it was way too drawn out.
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LibraryThing member Paul_Brunning
Book 1 in the best-selling Left Behind series is available once again in mass paper. Airline pilot Captain Rayford Steele guides his terror-filled 747 back to the ground with more than 100 seats empty except for clothes, jewelry, eyeglasses, shoes, and socks. He and Cameron "Buck" Williams, who had
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been on Rayford's plane, launch a frantic search for the truth.,Piloting his 747, Rayford Steele is musing about his wife Irene's irritating religiosity and contemplating the charms of his "drop-dead gorgeous" flight attendant, Hattie. First Irene was into Amway, then Tupperware, and now it's the Rapture of the Saints--the scary last story in the Bible in which Christians are swept to heaven and unbelievers are left behind to endure the Antichrist's Tribulation. Steele believes he'll put the plane on autopilot and go visit Hattie. But Hattie's in a panic: some of the passengers have disappeared! The Rapture has happened, abruptly driverless cars are crashing all over, and the slick, sinister Romanian Nicolae Carpathia plans to use the UN to establish one world government and religion. Resembling "a young Robert Redford" and silver-tongued in nine languages, Carpathia is named People's "Sexiest Man Alive." (This reviewer, a former People writer, finds this plot twist plausible.) Meanwhile, Steele teams up with Buck Williams, a buck-the-system newshound, to form the Tribulation Force, an underground of left-behind penitents battling the Antichrist. Ex-presidential candidate Pat Robertson briefly outsold Michael Crichton with his apocalypse novel The End of the Age (now available on audiocassette), and the similar The Third Millennium sells well, but the Left Behind series is the absolute champion in the race to make the Book of Revelation into racy thriller reading. --Tim Appelo ,Left Behind: A Novel Of The Earth's Last Days, by LaHaye, Tim And Jerry B. Jenkins
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LibraryThing member LibraryCin
2.5 stars. Rayford Steele is an airline pilot, flying a commercial flight; Buck Williams is a journalist and a passenger on the same plane. Mid-flight - all of a sudden - people disappear into thin air, leaving their clothes behind. They discover that millions of people have disappeared in the same
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manner at the same time, all around the world. Rayford turns to God and his wife's church for comfort and answers; Buck the journalist is just trying to find out what happened.

I like the idea behind the story, and parts were exciting, but the book just got too preachy for me. There was some political stuff in the book that I just didn't find all that interesting either, so those two things combined really brought down my rating and enjoyment of the book. It ends on a cliffhanger, which may have left me wanting to read the next book, except I just can't handle the preachiness of it all, so I won't be continuing.
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LibraryThing member jvalka
Clunky, leaden writing. I found the first 50 pages to be outrageously funny, especially the bits between Captain Steele and the stewardess, Hattie. After 150 pages it became tedious rather than amusing, and so I gave up on it.
LibraryThing member hamiltonpam
Read the entire series, enjoyed the story. I wanted to learn more about the theology the book was based on.
LibraryThing member ljhliesl
In a fit of desperation at my father and notstepmother's house, having finished Susan Sontag's Volcano Lover (see? desperate) and having to ration The World to Come for the flight home in case I didn't have time for a bookstore (should there be one at the Tampa airport), I didn't reread any of the
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books I've sent the two of them over the years or try any of my father's westerns or spy thrillers (I hate pulp paperbacks as a format) but opened this (part of a complete set, in hardcover).

There is the so-far genius, nearly-page-by-page analysis at slacktivist.typepad.com, which spends a lot more time on it than I am willing to. This post, e.g., highlights one form of the book's rampant immoral stupidity (without any spoilers):
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LibraryThing member fmweiler
This is great series, fascinating to say the least. The writing is a bit weak at times. They also take the book of revelation to the extreme but it does really make you think especially if you are a christian.
LibraryThing member mcivalleri
This story deals with various controversial subjects, from infidelity to the myth of “revelations”. It may or may not be appropriate for your school's library, but it would be a judgement you'd have to make. If a novel derived from religious mythology is not offensive to you and your readers,
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it sure is a roller-coaster ride of a thriller!
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LibraryThing member readingrat
A unique angle to the traditional apocalyptic thriller. It starts out pretty weak and at times feels a little preachy and repetitive, but ultimately gets interesting enough towards the end to encourage me to give the second book a look.
LibraryThing member carlienichole
I loveed this book. It was amazing to read about people becoming christian during the horrible times they were going through. They come to truly love Christ and their transformation is absolutely wonderful.
LibraryThing member ladytn
This is one of the best Christian fiction book series that I have ever read. I would highly recommend this book and all the other in the series
LibraryThing member minpin3G
Although these books have been on the market for a while, I only recently decided to read them. After reading this one, I was hooked. I feel connected to each character, I felt their fear and pain for all of their losses. This was a very easy read, and although not my usual type of thriller, I am
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rating this among the top in my library.
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LibraryThing member crazybatcow
The book's star rating is skewed: for a Christian fiction, it's actually quite good (go read some of the later books in this series, or Christian fiction books by other authors if you're in doubt - try Ted Dekker's Adam!). For a science fiction, it's about average.

Don't get me wrong, as the series
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progresses, the writing/characters/story gets progressively worse (I stopped at book 7 since after that it was just junky writing and bad editing). But this book was actually quite enlightening in its explanation of an entire religious group's beliefs, and, read as sci-fi, is as believable an apocalypse as any...
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LibraryThing member annenoise
I was going to say this book wasn't gripping, and is truly one of the least interesting of the entire series, but clearly it hooked me enough to read fifteen more books in the series. Straight-forward, rarely artistic, purely for the sake of narrative, which is purely for the sake of interpreting
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Biblical scripture - supposedly. Interesting juxtopisation of Christian beliefs and wartime strategy, violence and inhumanity. Surprisingly gory in places. Individual characters found almost no significant voices themselves in this, the first book, but the seeds are planted to see the core family - The Steeles, Ray and Chloe, and Buck Williams - eventually have real struggles and conflicts. It's basically almost entirely setup, a promise of more interesting material to come, which was true enough.
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LibraryThing member RWJ678
Wow....this book will grab your attention right from the jump. This has the great balance between fiction and non-fiction with someone seeking spiritual answers about the end of times. Great story line, with characters that keep you wanting to turn the page. In reading this, you must have an open
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mind and basic understanding of biblical teachings.
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LibraryThing member luvdancr
didn't even want to finish the book, got about halfway through...story drags on, as a way to display religious ideals, i believe in god, but am not enthralled by religion, and am just tired of the messages in the book, so i will not be finishing it, nor the series, this may be a better series for
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people who steadfastly believe in revelations and the end of times....
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Publication

Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. (1996)

Original publication date

1995-09-15

Pages

468

ISBN

0842329110 / 9780842329118

Language

Original language

English
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