Book Review: Glorious Appearing by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins (Left Behind #12)

Stars: 4 out of 5
Pros: Emotionally satisfying climax to long running series

Cons: The usual - thin characters, uneven plot, writing

The Bottom Line:

Jesus Christ returns

World will never be the same

And that's a good thing

Glorious Finale

This is it. The climax of the Left Behind series (or so they wanted us to believe at the time). Over the previous eleven books, authors Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins have given us their interpretation of the Biblical prophecies in Revelation in fiction form. We've followed characters like Buck Williams and Ray Steele from the day millions of Christians disappeared in the rapture through the judgements of God on earth and the terror of the evil anti-Christ's reign.

As has become the case with these books, Glorious Appearing picks up moments after the last one ended. Fortunately, they include the last chapter of Armageddon to jog your memory if, like me, you don't remember exactly what was happening.

With only hours to go before the return of Jesus to set up his earthly millennial reign, Buck and Ray are unaccounted for. While members of the Tribulation Force try to find out what happened to them, the forces of anti-Christ Carpathia are taking over Jerusalem and lining up to attack the Christians hidden in Petra again. Christian leader Chaim is trying one last effort to save those who might still be undecided. But the thought foremost on everyone's mind is, today is the day we will get to see Jesus. When will He appear?

As I said, this is book twelve in the series. If you have read the series up to this point, you pretty much know what to expect. And if you haven't, you'll probably be lost jumping in here. The series was insanely popular, especially for Christian fiction. The last few books in the series debuted at the top of the New York Times Bestseller List.

Yet lots of criticism has been lobbied against the series. The minor one in my view was the people who complained about the authors' view of scripture. Yes, it was only one view, but it was the authors', and they aren't going to write something they think is untrue.

More serious are the literary charges. And I certainly agree with these. The books were very plot driven, but the plotting became a tad uneven in the later books. Because plot was supreme, the characters were often paper thin, especially in later books when there were so many characters to follow. And the writing was weak. The authors were trying to get people who didn't normally read to read these books, and it worked. But the writing needed some polish. On the bright side, I always found the books an extremely fast read.

Of course, none of this mattered to the fans of the series. And if the book was good, I would only notice these things in passing. So really, the question comes down to; will fans like this entry in the series? As with just about every book in the series, reaction will be mixed, but I liked it and I think other fans will as well.

The last book had really irritated me as they appeared to forget some of their own rules in creating their cliffhanger. They managed to explain what happened logically and made me forgive them for that. The first half of the book moves quickly from one event and place to another and held my interest. I did find myself rolling my eyes sometimes, especially at the characters' desires to get from place to place to witness the events. Of course, the authors did that so we could "see" it, too, but it seems like they could have worked harder at coming up with better motivations.

And there was the final chapter, which provides a nice emotionally satisfying ending for long time fans. I closed the book with a smile on my face.

Once again, the plotting was uneven, with the second half slowing down. Once Jesus appears, we get pages of Him quoting scripture. There's been some of that in every book, but it got excessive at times, and I found myself skimming pages to get back to the action.

Yes, Glorious Appearing has flaws. People who don't like the series will certainly want to steer clear as there is nothing here to change their minds. But the fans who have read the previous eleven books will love this ending.