The Regime: Evil Advances (2006) - Plot & Excerpts
I credit my mom with getting me interested in this series. I have been hanging on since the beginning and have loved most of it (with the major exception of the terrible Glorious Appearing). So, when the prequels arrived, I plunged in.Plot:Nicolae Carpathia rises to power in Romania, Cameron Williams begins his career as a journalist, and Rayford's family is stretched to the breaking point when his wife converts to Christianity. Also, we get to see characters like Abdullah and Leon Fortunato.Good:The best parts of the book belong to Nicolae. Watching him manipulate and weasel his way into power is clever, amusing, and revolting all at the same time.The end was a cliff-hanger that almost brought the book back to the quality of the previous books.Bad:I have loved Left Behind. I consider myself a fan of the series. But I cannot, in my right mind, recommend this book. It is too horrible for words. I started this back in January of this year and only now have had the determination to finish it (and just so I can get it out from my nightstand!). The saddest thing is that LaHaye and Jenkins have done so well in the past (especially most recently with The Rising).I noticed three major problems with this particular installment:1. There are way too many characters to be covered even minutely well in 390 pages. There are Nicolae, Leon, Viv, Rayford, Irene, Chloe, Raymie, Hattie, Buck, Dirk, Abdullah. And this is just a sampling. How can anybody hope to develop these people to true characters in such a short time? All we, the readers, are left with are cardboard caricatures of the characters we adore from the Left Behind series. Nicolae is the fiendish wannabe dictator; Rayford, the clueless father/husband and rock-on pilot. Chloe gets to play a varied role (ha!) as the typical rebellious teenager (she even gets to go drinking!) while Irene is lumped into the worn-out mother/wife who is unequally yoked with her husband. Buck has no character after the death of his mother. Abdullah is probably the only interesting character as he struggles with his wife over her conversion from Islam to Christianity, but not that much.2. There is absolutely no plot. What happens in The Regime? I can tell you what is supposed to happen: Nicolae's rise to power. But all of 50 pages are spent on this fascinating tale, and most of that is hidden between senseless anecdotes about cardboard people interacting with cardboard people producing sleep-inducing experiences. Take Buck: he meets a girl he likes in the same section that she breaks up with him! We are given no time to bond with this woman and feel his pain when she breaks up with him. And about Rayford's family: why is it important that Chloe comes home drunk? That Rayford buys stuff on the black market? That we have to find out each time Irene meets Jackie and talks about how Rayford is an arrogant jerk? That Rayford has to drive Hattie home? Well, I guess to show yet another dysfunctional family, though what that proves, I have no clue. And sections are spent on people thinking about what they wanted to do instead of actually doing it! If the book had cut out Rayford's family and Buck's boring life (wow, he gets attached to a senior writer at the Global weekly, where's the popcorn?) and focused only on Nicolae, it might have been a better book.3. Rayford and Nicolae are inconsistent. Maybe Buck is too, but I fell asleep during his scenes. All I remember is reading endless lines about Rayford contemplating Hattie (if you read Left Behind, the first one, he comments on how he could have an affair with her and later how glad he was he hadn't gone very far--no mention of riding her home so frequently!) and how bad his marriage was. I always got the impression that Rayford had only started to recently think about having an affair, not something that had been in the works for years.Then there's Nicolae. He's so sweet and charming back in the first Left Behind. Here, we learn that this is a complete act; he actually is a spoiled eight-year-old who throws daily temper-tantrums when he's told that he's not at the center of the universe. The man we see in Left Behind? The charming politician, that unassuming senator of Romania who quickly rose to head of the UN based on his charisma, his empathy, his compassion? That's a consummate act. He's all charm and humility when in front of the populace and his one-night-stands. Why do Leon and Viv work for him? Well, they have nothing better to do and are used to him. Plus, maybe the benefits packet rocked.There are more things that drive me nuts about this bookb (how juvenile the writing seemed, the uneven pacing), but I don't have the time or the inclination to recall each and every one of them. You get the picture.Dialogue/Sexual Situations/Violence:Any dialogue is alluded to. Rayford contemplates adultery, and Nicolae has several intimate girlfriends. Several deaths occur, but nothing graphic.Overall:This was perfectly terrible! This could be used as an alternative to sleeping drugs! No wonder it took me almost a year to finish. Not only was the book boring, it took one of my favorite characters, Nicolae, and twisted him into this ugly, unrecognizable beast who doesn't seem a thing like he is later in the series. Stay away unless you are an avid Left Behind fan!
I'd have to agree with the customer reviews on Amazon and say that The Regime is slightly better than it's predecessor, The Rising which mainly followed the conspiracy surrounding Nicolae Carpathia's birth (and also the early life of Rayford Steele). The Regime, on the other hand, follows the lives most of the main characters from the Left Behind series, showing what circumstances in life led them to not choose God.Like all the other books in the the Left Behind series, The Regime was a quick read for me. They're not short books, but they're easy to read, and the chapters and sections are broken up in such a way that it's really hard to put the book down once you've started it.While I eagerly read the story, I have to say that it left me feeling anything but happy. Certainly I was overjoyed at the progress Irene Steele was able to make, especially leading little Raymie to be saved, but seeing how all the heroes of the original series turned their backs on God and chose to be left behind was heart breaking. Buck's indifference, Chloe & Rayford's stubborn unwillingness, Smitty's anger & fear - all made me realize that becoming saved is even harder in everyday life than during the tribulation. Like doubting Thomas, those left during the tribulation had the benefit of direct signs from God, they had much more obvious proof than we do in everyday life. There was also so much more of an obvious "them" and "us" mentality during the tribulation, whereas before the tribulation (like in real life) there was a wide spectrum of "Christian" belief, including Rayford's feel-good idea of God that misses the whole point of Christianity.I guess if I had one complaint (and I know I'm being nitpicky) is that they seem to think that only smaller "Holy Roller" churches, as Rayford calls them, are places where people can easily get saved. This is a conversation Kyle & I have had (even though he hasn't read any of the books) because, while we currently go to a smaller church, both of us went to larger churches (okay, mine was more medium-sized) and neither of us came from particularly energetic congregations and yet we still came away with an unshakable Christian faith. And obviously Irene and Raymie came to God going to an impersonal church, but it seemed like every "bad" church followed a formula, just as every "good" church did. I'm not going to get like the Catholic Church and get all up in arms about it, but having grown up & come to Christ in a church that tended to fit the "bad" model more than the "good", I was a little upset by the over-generalization they seemed to be making.Really, though, by far the strongest impression I get from all the books in the Left Behind series, is a feeling of spiritual renewal. They're all about coming to faith and seeing those stories play out over and over again (even though many of the attempts at conversion in this book are unsuccessful) reminds me what exactly it is that I believe in and why that's such a great thing. It also reminds me to worry less about sharing my faith with others, as everyone has their own style of sharing, some very subtle, and the important thing is that you try and remember that the best way to share your faith is to live it.Those of you who read my review of the The Rising in which I mentioned that these books could be enjoyed by non-Christians probably wondered why I spent this whole review being very Christian-focused. Well other than the fact that that's who these books are all about, realize that after 13 books, it's doubtful that anyone not at least empathizing with Christians is still reading. If you refuse to believe, or can't be certain about your faith, that's an awful lot of hearing about how you're going to burn in Hell, but I still think that the series is written in such an action packed way that it can be interesting to anyone, especially because in the beginning God couldn't be farther from the minds of the main characters.
What do You think about The Regime: Evil Advances (2006)?
This is the second official book of this series. This book talks about the events that happened before the first original book one. In this book, Nicolae starts to develop his evil side. The people that oppose him "disappear" and he is cheating his way up to the top and to achieve his goals. Rayford's life is getting worse as well as him and his wife are having an argument about her growing interest in Christianity. He is also trying to develop a new relationship with a flight attendant he works with. Many faithless in Christianity are talked about in this book and their problems/ reasons for being faithless in Christianity. A massive war on Israel is talked about before the book ended.
—Eric
I think the only reason I keep reading these is because I've already invested too much in the series and have to see it through. In the second book of the prequel trilogy, we continue to follow the lives of the two main characters, Rayford Steele and Nicolae Carpathia. We deal with Rayford's struggle with his wife's faith and Nicolae's quest to world domination. We are also introduced to new characters who will play a larger role in the main series, such as Cameron Williams, Abdullah, Chaim Rosenzweig and Leon Forunato. Surprisingly, the only character I felt was written well was Nicolae. Rayford seemed redundant and one-dimensional, and to be honest, rather annoying. I felt like, because this was a prequel, the characters had to be written in a way that fit into the mold created in the main series, therefore, not much creativity could be taken. The writing was still poor quality, with plenty of words missing from sentences. I also disliked how quickly the authors switched between the characters. It seemed like every page switched between them and so it felt like you never really got involved with one person's story.
—Pamela Hubbard
I just finished reading this book, and it was really interesting. There are three books in this series; The Rising,The Regime,and one other one. This book is about the characters in the Left Behind Series. These books focus on them and their lives before they were left behind. This book specifically talks about the Antichrist rising up through the Romanian government and him developing relationships with other heads of states, paving his path to total rule. I found this series, so far, very interesting because the authors have developed the characters even more and have given them a past, and have clearly shown the reader every aspect of their lives. I can't wait to read the next book in the series and get caught up to the beginning of the Left Behind Series. After I get this next book, I will move on to the series about after the Left Behind Series. Again in this book I can connect to it because I love talking about end times and whatnot. I love this whole idea of this book series.
—Damon Gerber
