Left Behind

[Taps]

who is a fan of the book series Left Behind?

[Laurie]

I am. I have all of the books (adult and kids) and all of the dramatic audio on CD (adult and kids). I thought the Remnant (book) was rather boring. IMHO the Dramatic Audio of that one is so much better.

[The Top Crusader]

I read I think the first 12 or so of the main adult books, and I enjoyed certain aspects of them, but it just got dragged out and commercialized way too much, IMO. There were like... a few books after they were all happily in heaven or whatever, which I never bothered with, that just seems like a cash-in to me.

And, the theology... don't get me started on the theology.

But really, regardless of that I found them entertaining, you just sort of have to turn off the critical thinking part of your brain. Great action and dialogue... too many 30 page sermons in the middle of the action, though.

[TigerintheShadows]

Yeah...I always thought they were too violent, even the ones geared for kids. Granted, that's kind of the point, but still...

[UNCLEBITTLES]

I haven't read them, but I want to.

[Taps]

I am. I have all of the books (adult and kids) and all of the dramatic audio on CD (adult and kids). I thought the Remnant (book) was rather boring. IMHO the Dramatic Audio of that one is so much better.

I have read all the kids books, I am on glorious appearing on the adult series, and have listen'd to all the live action audio of the kids. none of the adults though. did they find a good voice for Ray Buck Mac and Abduallah? they were my favorite charactors.

[American Eagle]

I have only read the adult book series, and loved them. (As fiction, that is; as Top said, it's not really theologically sound. ) I remember crying because I had to wait a few days to transfer between libraries. THAT'S how much I loved them. I laughed, I cried and I rejoiced like crazy when it finally all ended. It was a great plot.

This is a big spoiler:

Each of the "deaths", ESPECIALLY Buck Williams, made me cry. I was astounded. It was as if one of my best friends died before me.

[The Top Crusader]

Jesus wins.

[Marvin D.]

This is a big spoiler:

Each of the "deaths", ESPECIALLY Buck Williams, made me cry. I was astounded. It was as if one of my best friends died before me.

I know. It was so dramatic and then, he dies...and only one out of all the original Trib force lives. But, as Top's spoiler said hurray for the ending!

Has anybody here read Book 13, Kingdom Come? I was wanting to read it for ages, and I finally got to last year! It was one of the best. The descriptions of the Millenium Kingdom were great, and to see how characters grew up were interesting.

Spoiler on the ending:

The way that the final battle goes, and Jesus destroys them was just so...well, it made me feel really...empty on the inside. And when the book ends, I wish it could go on forever and ever and ever.

Random Note: I read most of the books (1-4, 6, 8, 9-11) when I was 9. So now I know why I sort of felt grossed out when heads were cut off and people were killed.

I have 36 out of the 40 kid books (it took me over 4 years to get them all), but I've read all 40. Subsequently, I started read the Red Rock Mysteries. But that's another story.

And I really want to listen to the audio drama.....

There. I've ranted enough about one of my favorite book series.

[Taps]

I have kingdom come sitting right next to me. I just have to finish glorious appearing then I will read that.

[Amethystic]

I've read the entire kids' series in three weeks (personal record!) before, and I've read the three prequels to the adult series. The adult series itself, however, I have yet to tackle.

[LizzieG]

I've read all 12 of the main adult series, and at least a couple of the prequels. Concerning the adult series, I only read most of those once, and that was awhile ago. I've listened to the dramatic audio quite a bit, though -- as recently as this summer, and do have some decided opinions on the series.

The dramatic audio series has amazing production quality and acting -- most of the actors are perfect for the roles. It does a great job being true to the books. However, because it's so true to the books, some of the weaknesses of the books are apparent by listening to the audio version.

• The books are weaker as the series progresses. This really starts to become apparent about halfway through the series, and it pretty much goes downhill from there. I enjoyed the story the first time around, but even that first time, I noticed in the last few books things like describing a "mission" basically after the fact, zapping it of any dramatic power, and just too much exposition and summary.
• Too many characters as the series progressed. The story is at its best when there are relatively few main characters. I liked the character dynamic circa books 4 and 5, though it was larger than that of the first three, but after that it just got to be too much. Related to that, the character development and three-dimensionalness of the characters fell as the series progressed. The characters became very static and uninteresting and, really, too similar to each other.
• Everything was too black and white. Now granted, for Christians living during the Tribulation, you'd expect the evilness to be very apparent to them. That's why I think having skeptics in the main roles would be way more interesting. Who the bad guys are is never, ever, in doubt, and not only that, but the villains become rather cartoonish and dumb to not figure out what the good guys are up to right under their noses (see next point for more on that).
• The good guys became way too invincible as the series progressed, and live in way too safe of a world. Sure, some characters die, but their operation never comes crashing down. They "almost" are found out, but They hack into computers, top-secret bad guy meetings, abscond with planes and other gizmos, and are never found out. Furthermore, after around book 4, we very rarely see the main characters take risks to share the Gospel. They're mostly going on missions to rescue their friends. The books briefly mention other interesting things going on throughout the world, but the focus is either too limited, or way too broad.

There are cool scenes throughout the series, but overall, and especially toward the end, it's disappointing. This summer, I listened to the entire dramatic audio series, but honestly, it was hard to press on to the end; I wanted to stop listening around book 5, when it was still pretty good (though, really, a lot of the foundational flaws are present even in the early books).

I loved this series when I was younger, and had fun writing fan fiction based on the series, so I look at it with some fond memories, but...

[Amethystic]

I've listened to the kids' audio series, but they changed a bunch of stuff in the plot. Shelly was reduced to a minor character, and they edited out a bunch of other characters out/greatly reduced their roles.

[TigerintheShadows]

Yeah, I heard that was a big issue for most fans of the series.

I myself liked the kids' series, but the adults' series was too violent, and I'm very sensitive and touchy about that sort of thing, so I have no plans to read the adult series anytime soon.

[Whitty Whit]

I have all 40 of the kids books and I think all of the adult. I've been too lazy to actually read the adult book. But hopefully I will soon.

The whole premise of the books is very intriguing. I agree they aren't theologically correct, but they are very good. The movies are excellent as well.

[TigerintheShadows]

We have the first movie--I didn't even know about it until I started searching for my copy of Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus a few weeks ago. So, if it isn't obvious, I've never seen it.

[Marvin D.]

Tiger, the first movie is rather....boring. I haven't watched in over two years. It was really the worst out of the series, IMO.

[TigerintheShadows]

Good to know--it's now not on my watch list.

[Taps]

I just finished Kingdom Come and it was awesome!!

[The Top Crusader]

Hey since some of you have read it more recently than me (literally some of you weren't even BORN when I read at least the early ones. ), do they even address the scripture about how those who have heard the way of salvation before the tribulation began but rejected it will have their hearts hardened and be totally deceived? Yeah, that is a paraphrase, but you know what I mean.

I'm just curious if they gave any explanation around that or just left it out.