The least illuminating book I have ever read. I finished it to make sure I would remember the misery and the name of the author to be avoided forevermore.

This is one of those books that really hit home for me. It was written years ago, it's based in the future, but some of it was like reading a current newspaper. We all need to keep our eyes open and be aware of what is going on around us.

Very disturbing book, but it really makes you think

This one was just okay for me. A bit slow and tedious at times. Not as gripping as I felt it could have been.

I read this book years ago. Now that the whole world is basically a cashless society, we all have GPS on our cars or cell phones, we all have debit cards rather than money in our pockets, we can be easily traced by the local and national and global authorities.... And a seasonal flu has shut down the entire world, without one single bullet being shot... All the sheeple of the world just giving in to a cold virus... This book rings even truer than it did when it was first written... Whatever happened to "I would rather die on my feet, than live on my knees"
Remember the Alamo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This review is from back in 2008 when I read the book. It deserves to be here because it shows how crazy the book is:

(This review is based on the 1991 edition of the book. apparently some details have been altered in the 2004 edition)

I suspect the title of this book was chosen to cash in on the mythical Illuminati, which has nothing to do with the secret society in this novel, "The Society" (although Burkett calls it the Illuminati a few times when first describing it). Burkett's Illuminati is a group whose goals, besides world power, is to "establish Satan's kingdom on Earth". Needless to say, they hate Christians, which we are told more times than I can count. The novel is set in 2001 (re-edited version in 2015), ten years after it was written, and somehow everybody in the USA, except for a small minority, is now against Christianity. Considering that a vast majority of americans are christians, this scenario is just too implausible to believe.

Instead of just telling his story, Burkett constantly voices his own opinions, calling liberals "fanatics" and portraying liberals as anti-Christian, foul-mouthed, coke snorting homosexuals who somehow managed to outlaw religious broadcasters and turn their tv and radio stations over to the evil "Gay power" groups. The bad guys are laughable stereotypes:

"By this time an avowed socialist and atheist, Sievers was attracted to a young English woman traveling with the group. Their mutual interests included an elitist view of themselves, a disdain of religion, and a desire to establish a new world order." (p.90)

Later in the book we have large mobs assaulting and killing Christians, carrying signs with an inverted cross, which according to Burkett is a symbol of the gay rights movement. The gay rights people continue their killings and in the meantime we learn how liberals want to harvest organs from babies. If Ann Coulter would write a novel, it would probably be like this one.

In the foreword, Burkett tells us he is a talented writer (leave that up to the reader to decide, why don't you?) and that the story is realistic. Unfortunately, he's wrong on both points. As for the realism, there is none. The Christian resistance movement can do absolutely anything by hacking the "Data-Net", and the government is left clueless as to how they do it. And the writing, all other flaws aside, is awful. He constantly jumps between different perspectives and even locations within the same scene. It's a mess.

A reliable source told me that Burkett was, although a bad fiction author, a wonderful man. If that is true, this book doesn't show it. Instead he comes off as simple minded, homophobic and paranoid. And an incompetent writer. Read this book only if you want to read some of the worst religious fiction there is. As trash, it is somewhat entertaining but it's too boring to qualify as true "so bad it's good" trash.

Great novel! Also, really good for historical context of current events.

Very good book. I personally would have liked more in-depth stories about some of the individuals that were affected by the terrible tsunami, or the camps, or those on the run. Or what happened to little Paula's family after Randy rescued her? I like to know more of the story myself. But, overall the book is good and I think it shows just what could happen.

Illuminati=Council of Foreign Relations=The Society. According to the book “For decades, top recruits from the families of Society members had been education in military schools and had risen to positions of authority until many of the top levels were dominated by them. But the plans of the Society had been laid so carefully that even lower-echelon leaders in the military had been carefully trained and recruited in the Society. The very fact that such a massive effort seemed impossible was what made it possible. Even the destruction of the American economy and morality since the early 1950s had been carefully planned through a systemic takeover of much of the media and virtually all of the movie industry. The movie industry sold Americans on immorality, and the media sold them on government handouts." Assassinations of top officials in Supreme Court and Presidency, the NCLU persecuting Christians (and Jews), a push towards a single monetary system and one world government (sound familiar?). Every day is a contest between individuals and Satan's temptations. This is the entire Left Behind series in one captivating book that is too scary in its similarities to actual events.

I read this book like 20 times as a 10-14 yro. My pastor owned it and I would sneak into his office and borrow it without permission and read it over and over again. I was so sick of the Bible, so sick of the same old books my Mom would let me read and this was exciting to me. Thinking about it now, I am sure he noticed that book on his shelf that got more and more worn and had the cover taped onto it,and just ignored his associate pastors book thief daughter, because hey, it was christian propeganda. Better to have us reading stories made to make us never question god than using our brains and making our will saves to leave the church (like I did when I was 17).

Fabulous, gripping story of political intrigue.

To see a summary of the book, look to the main page on Goodreads.

The more I live my life, the more I hear people question the so-called secret organization that supposedly runs the world called the Illuminati. I wanted to learn more about this topic so I chose to read this Christian's understanding of it, although it is a fictional account. Now that I read it, it was an interesting read, one that is highly entertaining, but it is clearly not going to be my only research into the topic. I have much more to explore!

I have not read "The Left Behind" series [a fictional account of Christian eschatology. In other words, it portrays one portrayal of how the end of the world will come to be], but I sense, based upon what I have heard of it, that this could be a similar representation.

If you want an entertaining read as to how Christians could end up being persecuted in the future and how "God" works things out for good, feel free to check this out.