The Left Behind Complete Set, Series 1-12

by Tim LaHaye

Carpathia nodded and smiled and waved to Rayford. How can he do that? Rayford wondered. Bruce said the Antichrist would not be indwelt by Satan himself until halfway into the Tribulation, but surely this man is the embodiment of evil.

Rayford would be eager to talk to Buck. He admired his son-in-law’s moxie and ability to set his own agenda and even gracefully decline suggested directives from Carpathia.

Buck sat bleary-eyed at the breakfast table, his ear stinging and his rib cage tender.

Tagging this as a rare well-written sentence

For once, he was glad he had always been manic about hanging onto old phone numbers. Deep in his wallet was just the one he needed. Ken Ritz, a former commercial pilot and now owner of his own jet charter service, had bailed out Buck before.

One of my favorite characters is coming back! Woohoo!

Buck checked in with Donny Moore, who said he had found some incredible deals on individual components and was putting together the five mega-laptops himself.

“Yeah, yeah, I know. Just stay out of our way. And I would appreciate it if you would refer to me as Mr. Fortunato.” “That means a lot to you, does it, Leon?” “Don’t push me, Steele.” As they entered the terminal, Rayford said, “As I am the only one who can fly that plane, I would appreciate it if you would call me Captain Steele.”

So, I assume Leon is here to be the muscle miniboss -- someone the heroes can beat without having eliminated the main antagonist.

Rayford stretched and stood watching the Cable News Network/Global Community Network television broadcast originating in Atlanta and beamed throughout the world.

Somehow, he knew God had placed him there. For what? Was this surprising bugging of the intercom system by Earl Halliday a gift directly from God that allowed Rayford to somehow protect a few from the wrath of Carpathia?

he wished there had been something he could have done to have warned people in San Francisco and Los Angeles of their impending doom.

Well, you didn't even try to warn anyone except your family

He finished the brief note of condolence and regret to Mrs. Halliday, lowered his head to his arms on the desk, felt a lump in his throat, but was unable to produce tears.

*Now*, you can't cry??

when his pastor had promised that Christ would return yet again in what Bruce had called “the Glorious Appearing.”

Yes Tim, we know.

And now came a brief address from Global Community Potentate Nicolae Carpathia. Rayford knew he was sitting within two hundred feet of the man, and yet he watched it on television, as did millions of others across the globe.

Beleaguered sigh

Chloe hobbled around on a cane, needing crutches but unable to manage them with her sprained wrist in a sling. That left Amanda to take Buck to the airport.

WTF, so Amanda, Chloe, Loretta, and Verna (literally the entire female cast minus Hattie) stay home while Buck and Rayford get to run around the Middle East and experience the plot?!

“Buck!” Amanda said in a scolding tone. “You cater to her feelings now. I had to kiss my husband good-bye in front of the Antichrist.

I love this piece of dialogue.

Buck was properly chastised.

I doubt that

Buck was amazed that the built-in TV had survived Chloe’s crash. He was not in a position to see it, but he listened as Amanda and Chloe watched.

“Continue to resist naysayers and insurrectionists.

Buck shook his head. “He sure tells ’em what they wanna hear, doesn’t he?” Chloe and Amanda were silent.

Yep, sounds about right

Rayford shut the cockpit door and locked it. He pulled out pre- and postflight checklists and put them on a clipboard with other blank sheets, just to make it look good in case someone knocked. He sat in his chair, applied his headphones, and hit the intercom button.

So, is Rayford just going to do this for the entire book? Without any escalating drama or tension? Will his spy gear ever be discovered? And then, maybe there would be an investigation he'd have to manipulate, or a clever cat-and-mouse game to find the spy? Just suggestions.

Rayford shuddered as he always did when Carpathia’s voice waxed grave.

Rayford heard the squeak of a leather seat and imagined Carpathia leaning forward to speak earnestly to his cadre of international henchmen.

Man, there have been a lot of golden sentences in this book

tens of thousands of converts and devotees have sprung up in Israel and around the world due to his preaching at Teddy Kollek Stadium and in other huge venues.

"other huge venues"

“You all have been doing a wonderful job of moving to the one-world currency. We are close to a cashless society, which can only help the Global Community administration. Upon your return to your respective areas, I would like you to announce, simultaneously, the initiation of a ten-cent tax on all electronic money transfers. When we get to the totally cashless system, you can imagine that every transaction will be electronic. I estimate that this will generate more than one and a half trillion dollars annually. “I am also initiating a one-dollar-per-barrel tax on oil at the well, plus a ten-cents-per-gallon tax at the pump on gasoline. My economic advisers tell me this could net us more than half a trillion dollars every year. You knew the time would come for a tax to the Global Community on each area’s gross national product. That time has come. While the insurrectionists from Egypt, Great Britain, and North America have been devastated militarily, they must also be disciplined with a 50 percent tax on their GNP. The rest of you will pay 30 percent.

This is where Carpathia shows his truly sadistic side. By raising taxes and manipulating the economy for his own gain. Diabolical.

As you know,

“As you know,

“We will gradually but steadily raise the price of oil, which will further finance our plans to inject social services into underprivileged countries and make the world playing field equal for everyone. From oil alone, we should be able to profit at a rate of about one trillion dollars per year.

Oh, and he's increasing the role of social services, in case the taxes didn't convince you that he's evil.

Finally, Leon Fortunato spoke up. “Potentate Carpathia,” he began deferentially, “I know I am merely your aide and not a member of this august body. However, may I make a suggestion?”

You didn't need "deferentially"

As the population level decreases and then stabilizes, it will be important for us to be sure that it does not then explode again too quickly. With proper legislation regarding abortion, assisted suicide, and the reduction of expensive care for the defective and handicapped, we should be able to get a handle on worldwide population control.”

Add abortion and healthcare to the list of things making Carpathia evil. If he hadn't just dissolved democracy, he'd probably try to decrease voter suppression and to end to gerrymandering next.

Lord, he said silently, I wish I was a more willing servant. Is there no other role for me? Could I not be used in some sort of active opposition or judgment against this evil one?

He knew Chloe had slept fitfully only because she told him in the morning. Her tossing and turning and winces of pain had not affected his slumber.

“It seems your fiancée is waiting with the crowd.” “That is totally inappropriate.” “Would you like me to have her removed?” “No, I am not sure how she might react. We certainly would not like a scene. I just hope she knows how to act. This is not her strength, as you know.”

The potentate always seemed taller than he really was in these situations, Rayford thought. He appeared to have just shaved and washed his hair, though Rayford had not been aware he had the time for that.

All things you inherit when you're the antichrist

Buck thanked him and grabbed his bag, slinging it over his shoulder. He headed toward the terminal. There, beyond the plate-glass window, he saw the enthusiastic wave of the wispy little old man with the flyaway hair, Chaim Rosenzweig. How he wanted this man to become a believer! Buck had come to love Chaim. That was not an expression he would have used about the other man back when he first met the scientist. It had been only a few years, but it seemed so long ago. Buck had been the youngest senior writer in the history of Global Weekly—in fact, in the history of international journalism. He had unabashedly campaigned for the job of profiling Dr. Rosenzweig as the Weekly’s “Person of the Year.” Buck had first met the man a little more than a year before that assignment, after Rosenzweig had won a huge international prize for his invention (Chaim himself always called it more of a discovery) of a botanic formula. Rosenzweig’s concoction, some said without much exaggeration, allowed flora to grow anywhere—even on concrete. The latter had never been proven; however, the desert sands of Israel soon began to blossom like a greenhouse. Flowers, corn, beans, you name it, every spare inch of the tiny nation was quickly cleared for agriculture. Overnight, Israel had become the richest nation in the world. Other nations had been jealous to get hold of the formula. Clearly, this was the answer to any economic woes. Israel had gone from vulnerable, geographically defenseless country ...

Sorry, but I skimmed your *6-page* recap of the previous two books. It's literally half the chapter.

News reports said black-hooded thugs pulled up to Ben-Judah’s home in the middle of a sunny afternoon when the teenagers had just returned from Hebrew school. Two armed guards were shot to death, and Mrs. Ben-Judah and her son and daughter were dragged out into the street, decapitated, and left in pools of their own blood.

Rayford thought he had had enough sleep, catching catnaps on his long journey. He had not figured the toll that tension and terror and disgust would exact on his mind and body.

Rayford disrobed to his boxers and sat on the end of his bed.

Woah there, I didn't know there would be nudity in this book

Buck had often been warmed by Chaim Rosenzweig’s ancient-faced smile of greeting.

Buck bent to hug his tiny friend, and Rosenzweig clasped his hands behind Buck and squeezed tightly as a child. He buried his face in Buck’s neck and wept bitterly.

Buck used a pay phone to call the King David Hotel. He booked a room for two weeks under the name of Herb Katz. “Representing what company?” the clerk said. Buck thought a moment. “International Harvester,” he said, deciding that that would have been a great description of both Bruce Barnes and Tsion Ben-Judah.

Apparently LaHaye workshopped this before it became the title of book 4: Soul Harvest. But it did remind me of the book Universal Harvester, by John Darnielle, which is fantastic! A way more moving and creepy book than anything I've seen in this series.

Rayford’s eyes popped open.

Gross

On a hunch he called the offices of the Global Community East Coast Daily Times in Boston and asked for his old friend, Steve Plank.

It wasn’t long before Steve was tabbed for the lucrative position he now held.

I think this is LaHaye's "bone apple tea" moment, becaused the word he means is "tapped," not "tabbed."

Of course, Rayford would not be able to let on that he had known about Hattie’s demotion before she did. He would have to let her play the story out with all her characteristic emotion and angst. He didn’t mind. He owed her that much. He still felt guilty about where she was, both geographically and in her life. It didn’t seem that long ago that she had been the object of his lust.

He shook his head. Irene, the lovely little woman he had for so long taken for granted, the one with the name of an aunt many years her senior, had known real truth with a capital T long before any of them.

Irene is the least weird name in this series, but all anyone wants to talk about is that it made her sound like a much older woman

Hattie was fifteen years his junior, and she was a knockout. Though they had enjoyed dinner together a few times and drinks several times, and despite the silent language of the body and the eyes, Rayford had never so much as touched her. It had not been beyond Hattie to grab his arm as she brushed past him or even to put her hands on his shoulders when speaking to him in the cockpit, but Rayford had somehow kept from letting things go further.

That night over the Atlantic, with a fully loaded 747 on autopilot, he had finally worked up the courage to suggest something concrete to her. Ashamed as he was now to admit it even to himself, he had been ready to take the next, bold, decisive step toward a physical relationship. But he had never gotten the words out of his mouth. When he left the cockpit to find her, she had nearly bowled him over with the news that about a quarter of his passengers had disappeared, leaving everything material behind. The cabin, which was normally a black, humming, sleep chamber at four o’clock in the morning, quickly became a beehive of panic as people realized what was happening. That was the night Rayford told Hattie he didn’t know what was happening any more than she did. The truth was that he knew all too well. Irene had been right. Christ had returned to rapture his church, and Rayford, Hattie, and three-fourths of their passengers had been left behind. Rayford had not known Buck Williams at that time, didn’t know Buck was a first class passenger on that very flight. He couldn’t know that Buck and Hattie had chatted, that Buck had used his computer and the Internet to try to reach her people to see if they were OK. Only later would he discover that Buck had introduced Hattie to the new, sparkling international celebrity leader, Nicolae Carpathia. Rayford had met Buck in New York. Rayford was there to apologize to Hattie for his inappropriate actions toward her in the past and to tr...

Another multi-page recap of the last two books. Why did these wait to show up until act 2? And why do they have to hit every minute plot point?

Maybe tonight, Rayford thought, he could finally have some positive influence on Hattie.

Ugh

Buck had always been able to awaken himself whenever he wanted. The gift had failed him very infrequently. He had told himself he wanted to be up and moving by 6:00 p.m. He awoke on time, less refreshed than he had hoped, but eager to get going. He told his cabbie, “The Wailing Wall, please.”

You can cut this whole paragraph. If Buck starts the scene at the Wailing Wall, we aren't going to wonder how he got there, let alone if he used an alarm clock.

the indefatigable Ben-Judah.

Ironically, the last time Buck had been at the Wailing Wall to watch and hear the two witnesses, he had been with Rabbi Ben-Judah. They had come back later the same night and dared approach the fence and speak to the men who had killed all others who had gotten that close. Buck had been able to understand them in his own language, though his digital recording of the incident later proved they had been speaking in Hebrew. Rabbi Ben-Judah had begun reciting the words of Nicodemus from the famous meeting of Jesus by night, and the witnesses had responded the way Jesus had. It had been the most chilling night of Buck’s life.

When will the recaps end?!