What do You think about Assassins (2000)?
I think this is going to be the last Left Behind book for me. I usually have a hard time stopping a series once I've started, but the last two have been abysmal. The writing has not improved, the characters have gotten even more annoying and unlikeable, and to top it off it's become very boring and repetitive. I had a hard time even finishing this one, and actually skipped ahead to the last 30 pages when I was only around page 250. I just couldn't take it anymore! The ending was good, and ALMOST made me want to read the next one. But even the parts of these that have been good in the last few books are spaced between pages and pages of rehashed boredom. I think I'll just look up how this series finally ended and be done with it. These books were a good idea and fun while it lasted, but they tanked pretty quickly for me, unfortunately. What a shame.
—Alex
Book 6 of the Left Behind series is perhaps the best in the series thus far. In "Assassins" we find the various members of the Tribulation Force under attack & fighting for their lives in various parts of the world. We also witness the arrival of the 6th Trumpet Judgement of 200 million demonic horsemen who wipe out a third of the world's population in addition to Rayford Steele's intended quest to assassinate Carpathia. The story moves extremely quickly & keeps the events of the prior stories moving along at a rapid pace. Granted there is a 3 month gap in the timeline toward the end of the story, but it serves as a necessity rather than bore us with the details of the deaths of more than 1 billion people. LaHaye & Jenkins do an excellent job with the paranoia factor of the people who still don't believe & that of the Antichrist (Carpathia) himself who is still convinced that these events can be explained away. A very daring & interesting entry in this series that really hasn't missed a beat & is now at it's midpoint.
—Paul Lunger
I have never really cared for Rayford as a character; he very obviously considers himself better than others, and often makes snide comments to this effect, but he is in full on douchebag mode in this book. He is obsessed with getting the killing shot on Carpathia, to the point where he abandons his fellow believers to whatever fate and runs off on his own to be the big hero. Everyone in the "Trib Force, North America" comments on this and is aware of it, but they are all too chicken to call him out on the fact that he has been acting like a total jackass for the past two books. Leon is turning into an interesting character though. I honestly enjoy his Renfield level sycophantism, and I'm sure it's only going to amp up in the next book when good old Nick becomes Satan embodied. Why the hell was Rayford in such a hurry to kill this dude when he was only going to rise up again as some jerk possessed by Satan? I don't really understand, but I suppose that's because I'm a heathen (or a pagan, as they love to call them in the books) who is too stupid to grasp such lofty supernatural things.The book is normally best when it's laying on the action, but many of the action scenes were destroyed by the utterly stupid supernatural threat of 200 million invisible horseman with lion heads, or something like that. When you take the bible absolutely literally, you sometimes end up something that unintentionally hilarious; I'm sure it was meant to strike fear into people, but they've already done the horseman thing in the form of those little dudes with stingers and human faces. Also, they threw in another earthquake, though localized to Jerusalem. I guess the ancients ran out of ideas while writing those portions of revelations.
—Shannon
