Nicolae: The Rise of Antichrist, pp. 51-56 Last week, at the top of page 51, we saw Buck Williams happily accepting help from Loretta while simultaneously plotting to exclude her from his own plans for refuge. This week we begin at the bottom of that same page, returning to Rayford Steele’s perspective for a longish [...]

Nicolae: The Rise of Antichrist, pp. 48-51 Buck Williams knows what is happening. He knows what’s coming. Thanks to more than a year of study with Bruce Barnes, Buck is thoroughly familiar with the details of the End Times check list. He has a schedule for the Great Tribulation and it sets a clear itinerary [...]

Nicolae: The Rise of Antichrist, Chapter 3 Chapter 3 of Nicolae is terribly exciting, at least by the standards of these books. It’s quite eventful and almost even suspenseful in the authors’ trademark, solipsistic way of utterly disregarding the fate of everyone except for our heroes. Rayford overhears Nicolae’s plan to obliterate dozens of cities [...]

Nicolae: The Rise of Antichrist, pp. 35-48 The Tribulation Force, like every band of heroes, needs a tech whiz. That stock character is familiar because he or she brings a vital skill set — vital both for the team and for the writer. Somebody needs to be able to provide the know-how that can carry [...]

Nicolae: The Rise of Antichrist, pp. 37-43 Jerry Jenkins wants to write a thriller. That’s not what this book is. Nor can this series accommodate having a thriller subplot shoehorned into it. Yet every little bit Jenkins makes a kind of spastic feint in the direction of the thriller he seems to wish he were [...]

Nicolae: The Rise of Antichrist, pp. 33-37 Jerry Jenkins’ crimes against continuity frustrate the reader’s every attempt to make sense of them. He’ll establish that the post-Rapture world is an anarchic, crime-ridden jungle of violent sinners-gone-wild, and then send Buck and Chloe off for a late-night stroll down quiet streets. Or he’ll drop a perhaps-nuclear [...]