The Tribulation Force hurtles toward the four murders foretold in Scripture. The head of Enigma Babylon One World Faith is in jeopardy, as are the two witnesses at the Wailing Wall as "the due time" approaches. Antichrist himself is prophesied to suffer a lethal head wound. As a supernatural horde of 200 million demonic horsemen slay a third of the remaining population, the Tribulation Force prepares for a future as fugitives. World history and prophecy collide in Jerusalem at the middle of the Tribulation for the most explosive episode yet of the continuing drama of those left behind.
Amazon.com Review: Is it right to kill Satan's hit man? Would it help God's work? This installment in the Left Behind series picks up with Rayford Steele--"believer" and international fugitive--as he struggles with a plan to assassinate Antichrist Nicolae Carpathia. Meanwhile, Carpathia has been busy rebuilding roads, airports, and a cellular/solar satellite phone system--all designed to help him become supreme ruler of the world--and even claim himself to be God. We also find ace reporter Buck Williams anonymously preaching to the masses of believers and converts through his cyberspace magazine The Truth. All the believers in the safe house, including Buck, Doc, Chloe, and Tsion, are suspicious of Hattie--former mistress of Carpathia--who claims to be a believer but may have already compromised their secret location when she tried to buy her way to Europe months before.
Fans of the series won't be disappointed. Jenkins's signature writing is at full force. Readers can count on a suspenseful plot, imaginative futuristic thinking, and familiar characters, all of which appear in the opening pages and are sustained until the last cliffhanger scene when God unleashes another earth-shattering disaster.
Unexpectedly Decent-ish In reviewing books 1 - 5 of this series, I've done my best to bash them without mercy.
The reason I've done this is that the books have deserved bashing. They're bad. Really, very bad. And, while I could pick apart this entry in the series, I think it's time to step away from heavy criticism for a moment and concentrate on the good. Now is the perfect time to do it because Assassins is far and away the best in the series thus far.
I don't know what happened to make it so, but the fact remains. Assassins approaches decent writing.
By allowing even the slightest bit of "gray" into the character of Rayford, there develops interesting conflict between him and the other members of the Tribulation Force. I loved his confrontation with 'T' (which was also one of the only examples of actual Christian virtue I've seen in the series, another huge plus here) and hope for a hinted-at confrontation with Buck further down the line. I've known many, many Christians in my time, and I wouldn't describe one of them as being "perfect." I'm sure that LaHaye & Jenkins would agree with me on that, and I'm glad to see that start to creep into their heroes.
Also, a great thing about this entry in the series was that it didn't wait until the very ending of the novel to have something exciting happen. The pattern, till now, had been to have one Tribulation per novel, usually in the last few pages. Here, we get a Tribulation early on, and so are actually dealing with exciting events during the majority of the book, not just discussing their possibility. That's a great step forward!
Leah Rose seems like a strong character, and might reverse the seeming trend to render all female characters irrelevant; the character of Chloe has never realized its potential, and Hattie approaches a caricature of a non-believer, but Leah might be the one to present a strong, central woman to the cast. Only time will tell there.
These positives -- a more exciting plot and deeper characterizations -- are only a beginning. And, I fear, they might easily be reversed by the novels to come. But, I will take them for what they're worth. They do not make this book "good," but do pull it close to 2.5 stars in my mind, rounded down to 2 due to all of the issues I still have with this series that remain unresolved.
This book at least gives a glimmer of hope that the books to come may prove more tolerable than those I've already, er, left behind.
Too slow The content was good, but the story lines really dragged. The fourth book was the best so far. I had a hard time getting through this one. I have started number 7 which seems to be faster paced. The authors need to learn how to write better cliff hangars , they have the material they just need to learn how to keep it going. I do appreciate thier effort at bringing people to Christ and the truth to thoses who wouldn't hear it otherwise. Amen to them!
Ummm.... Wow!!! This was by far the best book in the series. The action, suspense, comedy, and elements of saddness blend so well, that its hard not to love the books for what they are. Unlike the last installments, "Assassins" takes on a darker premise. The characterization gets much more refined, because of the writers ability of putting the reader more into the minds of the character... whereas in the others there wasnt as much of that. The sensory imput was amazing. Reading about how many of the people die in this novel is gruesome. I have to admit, i cringed at some of the gory details, and believe me when I say there is an abundance in this one as compared to the priors. I just want to know who shot Nicolae. This book sucked me in so bad I was screaming with excitment. I will no doubt devour the next one.
On the edge of my seat I'm almost done w/this book. It saddens me to read everything that goes on during this period. It is so very well written. I am sprung on these books and look forward to the next one. I recommend it w/all my heart.
Will I finish this series before the rapture? Ok, I took on the task of reading this series, because the first book was really good. But after that it gets more repetitive, and less believable. I contemplated skipping the rest of the books and buying the last one to see what happens, im sure i wouldn't miss much and would be caught up by the first 200 or so pages. Maybe I can just read the last of each book? I don't know, but I'm trying hard not to give up..The authors really should be ashamed of themselves for dragging this out.
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