The glorious appearing (by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins)

(Amazon UK link)

'The glorious appearing' is the twelfth and last book in the 'Left Behind' series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins.  The series has been enormously popular in the USA (and elsewhere) in the past decade. The series takes as its premise a literal interpretation of the biblical book of Revelation, and some other passages of Christian Scripture referring to the end times.

The initial idea in the first book was to get people thinking about their eternal destiny.  In a fictional setting it considered what would happen if all Christians are suddenly 'raptured' into heaven prior to seven years of tribulation on Earth, pending Jesus' second coming.

We bought the first few books (heavily discounted) some years ago and thought the first one, 'Left behind', was pretty good. It was exciting, believable, and definitely thought-provoking. Characterisation was a bit thin, and some of the conversation was stilted, but the plot carried it and made us eager to continue.

Unfortunately the books didn't improve as the series progressed. By the fourth or fifth we were all beginning to feel a bit bored. There is very little character development, and far too much action, peppered with clichés, and heavily interspersed with lengthy preaching. Moreover the series, which at first was supposed to be six or eight books, dragged on into twelve. I stopped reading at about number nine, and by then was borrowing them from friends rather than buying them anyway.

Still, I always said I would like to read the final book when it came out. It was eventually published earlier this year, and some friends bought a copy which they lent to our family a few weeks ago.

Had I missed out by not reading the last few in the series? No. That was clear immediately. The book opens with a brief 'who's who'; I recognised the names of some characters, learned that others had died, and also discovered that there were several new ones. Throughout the book I had to keep referring back to this initial section since none of the characters made any impact on me - other than the one or two whom I recognised as having been included in the entire series.

There is also a brief synopsis of the previous book, which apparently wasn't too different from whichever one I last read. The tribulation period is intended to be a time of - well, tribulation. Violence, battles, executions, betrayal... you name it. There are many possible interpretations of the book of Revelation, and the authors of this series have taken a fairly unpleasantly literal one. However as they didn't succeed in creating any characters that I cared about, even the worst of the violent descriptions rather rolled off me.

With 'The glorious appearing' being the last of the books, I knew it was going to include the final day of the tribulation when Jesus appears in the clouds to claim his people - the 'remnant' who were not Christians at the rapture, but who became believers and struggled to overcome all odds to stay alive until the last day.

The book does indeed open on the final day of the tribulation, as calculated by one or two biblical scholars amongst the remnant. Wars are still going on, and the still-living Jewish people - whether or not they have become Christians - are safely in a divinely protected camp. Various other Christians are either in safe houses or out in action; some of them are seriously wounded or even recently dead. The enemy forces, headed by the evil Nicolae Carpathia, are determined to get rid of all who do not accept Nicolae as a god.

There is potential for a very exciting story, but unfortunately it isn't reached. The authors seem determined to cram in as much preaching as possible, with lengthy explanations of biblical prophecies, and gospel messages. These are all poorly disguised by TV broadcasts or Internet sites organised by those who had become Christians during the tribulation, and who had - unbelievably - not been rounded up and executed.

I'm a Christian myself, but I found myself skimming (even skipping) these passages which said nothing new - either to me, or to anyone who had read any of the previous books. It seems to me that if somebody wasn't convinced by the dramatic events and messages of the first book, they certainly wouldn't be by the twelfth in the series.

So do I recommend it? Sadly, no. If you've read any others in the series, then you might want to get hold of this to see how it all ends - but borrow it if you can. Don't bother with it if you haven't read at least the first book as it's unlikely to make much sense. There are too many characters, far too much action, and rapid conversation which does little to advance the plot and nothing to help us understand the people.

Three out of four of us in my family read it. My husband, usually quite a slow reader, finished it in two days having also skimmed large amounts of preaching. He said it was a bit dull. My 15-year-old son (a very fast reader) read it in about two hours, and said it was far too preachy and had some strange theology in places.

I read it in about four hours, and was left unmoved. Actually that's not entirely true: I was actually rather embarrassed at the thought that anyone would read their way through some of the scenes which were clearly supposed to be highly moving, and yet - because the characters were flat - simply came across as excessive words on a page.

I do hate to be so negative about it, because I think the original idea of this series was excellent. While I don't necessarily agree with the exact interpretation of Revelation that the authors made, I can see it's one possibility. Potentially the whole series is very thought-provoking; if only it weren't so long and drawn-out, and so full of non-plot sermons. 

It does lead to some interesting discussion amongst Christians, although this particular book hasn't sparked as much conversation as the first one did. It's not the worst book I've ever read. I did get to the end, and I did realise it was a satisfactory ending to the series, albeit a bit bloodthirsty and self-righteous in places.

I don't plan on acquiring our own copy of this book, nor do I expect to read it a second time.