Product Description

Book 1 in the best-selling Left Behind series is now available in mass paper. Airline pilot Captain Rayford Steele guides his terror-filled 747 back to the ground with more than 100 seats empty except for clothes, jewelry, eyeglasses, shoes, and socks. Steele finds that his wife and 12-year-old son have vanished, but he and his college-age daughter, Chloe, have been left behind. He and Cameron "Buck" Williams, who had been on Rayford's plane, launch a frantic search for the truth.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #439163 in Books
• Published on: 2000-09-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Amazon.com Review
Piloting his 747, Rayford Steele is musing about his wife Irene's irritating religiosity and contemplating the charms of his "drop-dead gorgeous" flight attendant, Hattie. First Irene was into Amway, then Tupperware, and now it's the Rapture of the Saints--the scary last story in the Bible in which Christians are swept to heaven and unbelievers are left behind to endure the Antichrist's Tribulation. Steele believes he'll put the plane on autopilot and go visit Hattie. But Hattie's in a panic: some of the passengers have disappeared! The Rapture has happened, abruptly driverless cars are crashing all over, and the slick, sinister Romanian Nicolae Carpathia plans to use the UN to establish one world government and religion. Resembling "a young Robert Redford" and silver-tongued in nine languages, Carpathia is named People's "Sexiest Man Alive." (This reviewer, a former People writer, finds this plot twist plausible.) Meanwhile, Steele teams up with Buck Williams, a buck-the-system newshound, to form the Tribulation Force, an underground of left-behind penitents battling the Antichrist.

Ex-presidential candidate Pat Robertson briefly outsold Michael Crichton with his apocalypse novel The End of the Age (now available on audiocassette), and the similar The Third Millennium sells well, but the Left Behind series is the absolute champion in the race to make the Book of Revelation into racy thriller reading. --Tim Appelo

From Library Journal
On a flight from Chicago to London, several passengers aboard Capt. Rayford Steele's plane suddenly and mysteriously disappear. When Steele radios to London to report the situation, he discovers that the incident on his plane is not an isolated phenomenon but a worldwide occurrence. As Steele begins his search for answers, he learns that the Christ has come to take the faithful with Him in preparation for the coming apocalyptic battle between good and evil and that those who have been left behind must face seven dark and chaotic years in which they must decide to join the forces of Christ or the forces of Anti-Christ. Jenkins, writer-in-residence at Moody Press, and LaHaye (A Nation Without a Conscience, Tyndale, 1994) have written a gripping thriller that captures the anxiety and fear that interpretations of Revelation often inspire. For most libraries.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Back Cover
Now experience the book that launched the phenomenon!
Exclusive Limited-Edition Features

• Full-color End Times timeline
• Behind the scenes with Jerry Jenkins
• Compelling testimony of lives transformed by the Left Behind series
• Exclusive sneak peek at The Rising, the first book in the Countdown to the Rapture
• And more!

Customer Reviews

A Good "End-Times" Book for Christians
The idea of the book is great, though done before. The way this book is written though, basically, chronicals the events that take place in the "end-times" as described in the Bible.

The book revolves around some central characters. They all are involved with the church in one way or another. Eventually you see most of them "converted" into Christians. As they are they feel that their "mission" is to convert others. There also is some romantic "tension" thrown into the mix. The characters aren't all developed too well but I still felt a connection with them.

I enjoyed this book and think that many others will too. Although this book, I feel, was written mainly for Christians. There is no subtlety in the message. Everything is taken almost verbatim from the Bible. It doesn't give you a lot of "food for thought". For that I recommend James BeauSeigneur's "The Christ Clone Trilogy". "Left Behind" is pretty straight forward and a great beginning to the series. Highly recommended for Christians.

Made-for-Television Apocalypse
I tend to side with those reviewers who found the book rather light. With the exception of Rayford Steele, most of the characterizations lack depth and consistency. The authors occasionally drop off into mini-sermons that clash otherwise with the flow of the story. And as the events of Revelation unfold, the good and bad become too transparent, too black and white, and too obvious. As suggested by another reader, I read the first of the Christ Clone Trilogy and was much more impressed. In the end, Left Behind comes across as the basis for a television miniseries than a fully fleshed novel. I'm not as harsh as some critics, so I give it three stars for being readable, not too preachy, and interesting in its way.

So so
I've read all but two of the books in this series but I'm not sure why I keep reading. They are so so at best. If you have a lot of time on your hands or you drive a lot and can get the tapes at the library, great. They are no where near as good as the Christ Clone Trilogy by James BeauSeigneur.