In the last 4 books of the Left Behind series, we see God and Satan going mano a mano to the end. Their battleground . . . Earth.

Desecration
The best "action" novel of the Left Behind series, Desecration lends the opening battles of the War of the End of Days a degree of grittiness and realism unseen in previous efforts such as Apollyon or the God-awful Assassins. The bad guys are actually bad, the good guys have to face issues of death and moral uncertainty on the battlefield, and (a departure from previous novels) God actually seems like a deity who cares about the people he created.

David's death is heartbreaking, and Hannah's reaction to it (and her having a conversation with him online moments before his demise) is spot on. I wish I could say the same for Hattie Durham (her death, while heroic, seems almost pointless), but then again, my alternative plotline (kill Rayford, have Hattie take over his duties) would probably have pissed off a great many Left Behind readers (though, I suspect, it would have made the story far more interesting).

Most importantly, God's actions in this book (unlike previous ones) actually make sense. He heals Rayford, he leads the Israelis through a hail of fire and bullets (and in the face of 3 well-trained divisions), protecting them by his actions against the soldiers, and by his actions against the "new" world system that generated those soldiers. He provides food and water for people who are (presumably) on the verge of starving, thanks to the antichrist's minions, and he speaks to people when they need direction and help.

I wish God had been doing this during the previous 8 books (and during the 3 and a half years those books cover), but I suppose that God (and the authors) had reasons for doing otherwise. :)

The only major drawback to the story is its ending--I mean, come on! Given that God swallows a couple of hundred thousand troops in the desert floor a few chapters back, is it really likely that Carpathia's bombs are going to be any more effective??

The Remnant
What the hell?

This book has absolutely no plot (that I can detect), and the rescue sequence in Greece, involving as it does the deliberate (and wanton) murder of a 14 year-old girl (albeit a 14 year-old girl who mercilessly killed 3 men in the previous novel), was completely baffling to me. Didn't God already resolve the question of whether or not to kill enemy troops in book 9 (the whole, swallowing the army into the Earth's crust deal)? It didn't make any sense to me that a God who could wipe out--with a thought--over a hundred thousand heavily armed troops wouldn't find some way to relieve George Sebastian of the burden of strangling his 14 year-old captor to death (and breaking her neck).

I guess it's okay for the military professionals to do the killing . . . as long as they're on the "right" side, of course. :)

Carpathia descends into 2-dimensionality again, as does almost every character in this book (and Leah's sweet on Tsion Ben-Judah--what the hell??), but what makes this novel unforgivably bad is that the miraculous replenishing of the water to Bihari's cell group (and presumably to the Christians of the world) serves as ultimate proof that the Rapture does not have to take place before any of the events depicted in the previous 8 novels. Remember the whole spare-Christians-from-what's-coming argument in Left Behind? Well, according to the authors of this book (and Left Behind), God can spare Christians from what's coming, regardless of whether or not they are actually here to experience it.

I think some post-tribbers might have a few witty remarks about that . . . :)

(Personally, I find the whole Rapture discussion to be ridiculous--after all, who cares when the damn thing happens as long as I get to fly, fly away when it does? :))

Armageddon
"This book is not about the battle of Armageddon!"--that should be on every book cover.

In over 400 pages, we lose almost every major character in the book--including Chloe (in a rather inexplicable series of events, I might add), Albie (in another equally baffling series of events), Ben-Judah (whose death is covered appropriately), and Cameron (as we discover in the next book)--leaving only Rayford (whose life is in doubt), Leah, and Mac as major characters from the series who will make a return appearance in the next book.

Carpathia loses steam, and doesn't seem all that compelling even after his (and Fortunato's) "frogs" trick, so at this point, I'm wondering what the hell everyone is fighting for--except perhaps time (which none of them has). Rayford's reaction to Chloe's death is less than compelling as well (come on, damn it, that's your daughter getting her head chopped off on national television!), and Albie's death doesn't seem to raise any eyebrows at all (except for Chloe's). By novel's end, I felt the same way as I had at the end of Assassins: "So what?"

I mean, after all, these characters are all coming back in the next book (alive or dead), right? Where's the suspense?

(It seems like the authors finally got the fact that God was coming off as really boorish and uninterested in the welfare of the world he created--I notice that in these last 3 books, God seems loving, caring, protective on an individualistic and collective level, and relevant to the situations people are in.)

Glorious Appearing
God

kicks

ass.

:)

Carpathia gets his. Fortunato gets his. Viv Ivins (that annoying little chiclet!) gets hers. Suhail Akhbar really gets his. And the GC (and presumably the world system) all die very bloody, grotesque, and horrifying deaths.

The end.

(Too bad Satan, as revealed in the epilogue, is going to be up for parole in a thousand years . . . )