The Last Sacrifice sees the return of Gallus Sergius Vitas, who had been sentenced to death by Emperor Nero and his most trusted adviser, Helius. While Nero waits in the arena stadium to watch a man he believes to be Vitas die at the hands of a gladiator, little does he know that Vitas has already been spirited away out of Rome after having been tossed onto a ship along with the Apostle John. Along with his freedom, Vitas has been given a scroll written in Hebrew and filled with symbolism he has been told to unravel to find the answers he's seeking. The scroll contains portions of the letter of Revelation, a letter that Helius is also seeking to understand, for it portends the death of Emperor Nero, information Helius will seek to keep from Nero at any cost. When Helius realizes that Vitas is still alive, he sets into motion a plot to kill Vitas in order to protect the power that Nero has shared with him, a power that he and Nero are bent on using to wipe out every last Christian in the empire.I greatly enjoyed this follow-up to the story begun in The Last Disciple. Hanegraaf and Brouwer make a dynamic writing team, and the scenes crackle with action and tension and suspense. The book is written at an unstoppable pace, making it difficult to step away from it for any length of time. I love being able to watch Vitas on his journey, from moments of hopelessness to growing ever nearer to choosing to follow the Christos whose name seems to follow him no matter where he is. Some of the scenes involving Nero are so realistically written that I felt utter revulsion at reading about an Emperor who was so entirely twisted and perverted, especially the scene where he has a boy castrated and then seeks to marry him. How bizarre that the Roman world embraced this as normal! The scenes set in Jerusalem are very powerful ones, and serve as a cautionary tale of how far off course it is possible for God's seemingly devoted followers to go. Men of power, such as the temple priests, were seen serving God with devotion and yet easily willing to kill anyone in their way, in order to defend their position of power. Likewise, the scenes set in Rome, where men and woman did as they pleased, satisfying any desires of the flesh without any regard for how it impacted others, made me contemplate how very similar our own culture is today. The Last Sacrifice is a very worthy follow up to the first book in the series, and serves to advance the story of Vitas and his wife, as well as the story of the survivors in Jersulam, while leaving me craving the conclusion to this powerful series. I award this book 4.5 out of 5 stars. I'm certainly glad that the wait is almost over for book 3, The Last Temple, which I will be reviewing in August 2012.Book has been provided by the publisher, Tyndale (courtesy of publicist Katie Dodillet), for the purposes of this unbiased review.
While an enticing sequel to the previous book, The Last Sacrifice suffers heavily from a lack of clear direction.Pros:A lot of the pros from the previous book still stand. The characters are still interesting and complicated, the eschatological view is still great, and the book is still page-turning and very hard to put down. While none of these are as top-line as in book one, they're still good enough to keep the book interesting.Cons:While this was present in the previous book, this becomes very noticeable in this book: namely, that the book as a whole doesn't have a real plot. There's no discernable goals for many of the characters, other than to stay alive and escape. As a result, the story is mostly driven by the character's reactions to events rather than acting to events. And so you don't really feel like the story has gotten anywhere at the end of the book. It has set up the last book really well. But it feels like, plot-wise, that's all the story is: set-up. And so while it was an enjoyable read, it feels like it should be 50% shorter and part of Book 3, instead of its own separate book.As a follow-up to the above point, the book has a really abrupt ending. Not as in a cliff-hanger ending--I love good cliff-hanger endings like Empire Strikes Back or Catching Fire. But it really feels like the author just chose an arbitrary point to split Book 2 and Book 3. There's no real climax to this book. Overall:This book is a lot weaker than Book One, mostly because, while this happened in book one as well, it just becomes really clear that there's no real plot for each book in the series: the plot is just an overarching one in the series as a whole. This makes each book feel more like an installment in a TV series than a book that is solely good on its own merits. Because most of this book is a set-up for Book 3, then, a lot of how good this book is depends on how good Book 3 ends up being. If Book 3 blows me away, then the set-up was at least partially worth it. Otherwise, while the story is engaging and a fun read, the lack of structure really hurts the story.2.5 stars. (Okay)
What do You think about The Last Sacrifice (2006)?
I recently posted a review of the first book in this series, The Last Disciple, and loved it. This book was even better. It picks up where the first book ended and brings all of the characters back from the first book.As I stated in my other review, the authors wrote these books with the premise that the Tribulation spoken of in Revelation has already happened in the first century. I disagree with that idea, but it is still an interesting idea and did not make me enjoy the books any less because of it.Hanegraaff and Brouwer came up with some great characters to put in these books, and the best one, in my opinion, was Vetis. He pretty much turns out to be the central character in the books, and they did a great job of developing his character throughout the books. This book was even better than the first, and I did literally read it in one sitting, loving every minute of it.This is historical fiction, and I have learned a lot about what happened in the days of Nero and what happened with Jerusalem. I would highlt recommend this whole series. It is, to use an over-used word, awesome.
—Mark
You can look at this book as a counter to the incredibly famous Left Behind series. While the LB series takes an approach to the tribulation occurring at some point later in the future, with the anti-Christ being some European evil personified, The Last Sacrifice (part of a series) writes from a framework that the tribulation has already happened, specifically during the reign of Nero before the destruction of the Jewish temple in A.D. 70. It's a very interesting and compelling story. The characters range from Jewish Zealots, to Roman military generals, as well as the Disciple John. The protagonist is a Roman General named Vitas who has been betrayed by Nero and is now running for his life from an Emperor and another member of his inner - circle. A very fascinating read and I can't wait to pick up the next one.
—Jamie Boehmer
