Left Behind (Left Behind, #1) in Crazy Challenge Connection

Dec 13, 2010 Jamie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: christian-fiction, books-i-own, mystery-thriller, pick-it

Re-read August 2015

This is one of those stories that makes you stop and think "What if." It is very much Christian fiction that focuses on the Book of Revelation, starting the Rapture and tells of the story of those left behind. Although, even just for story value I think non-Christians can possibly enjoy this as well so long as they accept this does not follow their beliefs. It is an interesting story unto itself.

The book is told primarily from two perspectives. Cameron "Buck" Williams-a famous ...more

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Oct 24, 2011 PepperP0t rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary, adult, series, fantasy, adventure, 2016-read, dangerous-heroes-between-my-covers, cultural-religious

Actually 3.75 stars

Pilot Rayford Steele's mind is not on flying the plane. Instead, he's thinking of how to get gorgeous senior flight attendant Hattie Durham out of her clothes and in his bed. Then the unthinkable happens. Instead of a knock signaling an assignation, the knock signals the world has changed. Over 100 people are missing from a flight in progress.

After landing the plane, Rayford is concerned over his inability to reach his family but gets Hattie settled to find her way home. At h Actually 3.75 stars

Pilot Rayford Steele's mind is not on flying the plane. Instead, he's thinking of how to get gorgeous senior flight attendant Hattie Durham out of her clothes and in his bed. Then the unthinkable happens. Instead of a knock signaling an assignation, the knock signals the world has changed. Over 100 people are missing from a flight in progress.

After landing the plane, Rayford is concerned over his inability to reach his family but gets Hattie settled to find her way home. At home, Rayford quickly remembers his wife's constant conversation of the Rapture when he finds her nightgown under the sheets as if she melted. He begins to frantically try to locate his daughter, Chloe, who he finds has also been left behind.

People all over the world are confused, the only traces left of their loved one are their belongings. Abandoned buildings and vehicles; scattered and separated families and family try to determine, locate and reunite with each other. Spotty telephone service and unreliable transportation thwart efforts as people learn to trust and depend on new friends and strangers in the same situation.

Renowned journalist, Buck Williams, a passenger from Rayford's flight picks up the mantle to try to explain what's happened to the world. Rayford seeks solace at his wife's church and finds Pastor Bruce Barnes. Bruce has a theory that Rayford's small band of followers adopts as they vow to fight together. Bruce believes the Anti-Christ has arrived in the personage of charismatic Nicolae Carpathian.

Those left behind begin to piece their lives together and ask why. It's whispered Christianity is the common denominator, that those who've disappeared were devout. For those left behind their order of business includes deciding not only what but how to do next as the survivors divide along lines of rejecting or accepting the whispered reason of Christianity or straddle the fence and hope for the best.

Hopefully the interesting characters will become more fleshed as they try to give themselves a second chance at salvation. Dramatic and action set pieces abound to emphasize the choices people are making. While not the best written prose this reader has rolled her eyes across, even at its most ham-fisted, it's far from the worst. The tale itself opens opportunities for theological debate and discussion.

I read some but not all installments of this popular but divisive Christian fiction series when it was published. Make no mistake this series is a lyrical fiction based on Christian principles and beliefs and holds its own against a Sunday sermon. If that is a topic that goes against the readers personal beliefs this is not a series for you. As with any book the reader accepts what they want and rejects the rest. ...more

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