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Series: Left Behind
Title: Soul Harvest (Book 4)
Author(s): Tim LaHaye & Jerry B. Jenkins
ISBN: 0-8423-2929-0
Format: Oversized Paperback
Page Count: 424
Overall Concept 7
Execution 6

This novel is the fourth in the series of twelve that deal with a modern day depiction of The Rapture, the Biblical Prophesy that describes the 'end of days' as described in the last book of the New Testament, Revelation.

When we left the last book, the Earth had just suffered a large cataclysm and the fates of two of our protagonists are in question. Well the fate of one of them isn't revealed until 2/3 of the way through the book and the other isn't resolved until the last chapter.

I found that this book can most easily be described as the outline for a typical made for TV movie. The actions of the heroes are just this side of preposterous and the characters are overly dramatic. And is typical of the genre, the right person always presents themselves to the protagonists at just the right moment. The only thing is that no current major network would have the temerity to create and air a show that was this heavily Christian, as that would go against 'political correctness', or what I like to think of as 'we can't seem to be offending anyone so therefore we can have no real opinion of our own'.

My greatest annoyance with this novel was the fact that a LARGE portion of it is spent on determining the fate of, or rescuing, two of the main characters and one of the characters that is being foreshadowed to be a main character in the forthcoming novels. Yet, two further cataclysms are to quickly summarized in the last chapter. This further irks me as one of the strengths of the previous novels was how they took time to represent the worlds and characters reactions to these events, but now they are almost seen as 'common'.

I'm almost glad I don't have the rest of the books in the series, as I think it might be good for me to have a break from these novels. This will allow me to have a fresh take on them when I start reading them again.

I do like this series and find the concept quite intriguing, I just think this was the weakest novel in the series thus far and doesn't create the same desire in me to read the next novel as the previous two have.

Again I would recommend this book, with the caveat that it is 'mental bubblegum', to anyone who is intrigued by the premise of a modern day Rapture, or Biblical Prophecy in the modern era.

Now I think I'll go read me some Horror..........