(If you're planning to read this book, don't read this review. I give away the entire plot.)

The world of Christian publishing has been rocked by the unprecedented success of the "Left Behind" series of endtime novels by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins. The series is now about a dozen volumes, and there's no sign that they'll be letting up any time soon. There's now a children's edition, several have been filmed, and advance orders for each new volume are breaking sales records for Christian books.

As the first-listed author, LaHaye is thought by some as the one who wrote the books. It's actually Jenkins, a professional ghost writer, who does the writing. LaHaye just checks the theology to ensure doctrinal soundness (from their point of view). The success of the series is marked by large displays known as "Left Behind Headquarters," stationed in larger Christian bookstores, and the opening of the Tim LaHaye School of Prophecy at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University. No kidding.

The Drapers are likewise listed as co-authors of the present volume, but more honestly, the writer (Jessica) is listed first, while the expert on prophecy (Richard) is listed second. I appreciate this proper credit being given.

"Seventh Seal" is yet another attempt by a Mormon author to avoid being "left behind" in the flood of endtime novels showing up in the bookstores. Of course, this book presents the story from a Mormon perspective. Draper is presented as an authority on prophecy, and can thus be expected to see that the book is in line with official Church teaching.

Why is the LaHaye/Jenkins series so popular? To be fair, Jenkins is a very good writer. His situations are compelling and coherent, and his theology is consistent, in line with the fundamentalist, dispensationalist point of view. Even with a faulty premise, a well-written book can carry a reader's interest.

At 499 pages, "Seventh Seal" needs to be written well. We shall soon see whether this is so.

There are several storylines presented in this book. The first involves a giant pharmaceutical research firm known as MedaGen. It has been swallowing up other pharmaceutical firms in an effort to gain a monopoly in the industry. Supported by a Senator Garlick, who has his own agenda (and doesn't mind cutting ethical corners), they buy up a firm that employed Chris Galen, a brilliant scientist working on a cure for diabetes.

The day after the takeover, Chris shows up for work, logs in to his computer with his username (ChrisG), and is told he has to change his password immediately. He does so, is logged in, and discovers that he has access to someone else's files. That someone else is Gregor Christoff. Galen's username has been changed to GalenC; Christoff's username is now ChrisG. (Get it?) To Chris' surprise, Christoff is working on a supersecret project, developing a cure-all drug, called AllSafe, that will benefit all mankind. The problem with the drug is that it requires constant booster shots, an incredible chance for this company to make a huge profit, since they are the only ones who manufacture the vaccine and the boosters. But they aren't planning on telling anyone about the need for booster shots. And the evil Senator Garlick is complicit in making vaccination mandatory for all citizens!

Human tests on the vaccine are conducted, and the subjects from whom the booster shots are withheld died a terrible death, their immune systems completely breaking down. Chris, a good Mormon, can't let this pass by. He comes home to his wife, Merry, explains what he's discovered, and they are determined to expose the nefarious plot.

Now, if you think that Galen's access to "top secret" files was too easy, you're right. It is just preposterous to think that computer security in a large, ambitious and rather paranoid firm, could be that weak. With the takeover, the authors make a point of extolling the new security measures. Cameras, armed guards, etc. They're leaving nothing to chance. The idea that the system just let him in to see the files, when the company knew that any disclosure of these files could run their plans for world conquest, is ridiculous.

When Chris is killed in an auto accident, Merry has to carry on the work. Using deceit, she obtains employment at MedaGen. She uses an assumed name and a truncated resume. She uses her position to gain access to the sensitive files so that she can expose the plot. When one of her supervisors learns that she's actually the late Chris Galen's wife, she flees the city with her infant daughter, making her way to Salt Lake City to enlist the help of the Church in exposing the plot.

(Church headquarters, by the way, has been moved to Independence, Missouri. I never quite figured out why some leadership remained in Salt Lake City. The impression I had gotten was that they had pretty well cleared out. But this is just a minor bit of inexplicable information; I decided to let it pass.)

But let's move on to another storyline. It seems that gangs are taking over the country, roving about, selling drugs and killing their competition. A young man named Dove, and his older brother Benny, are caught up in the trade. But Dove wants to better his life, so he's going to school, and several gang members are going to school with him. They've commandeered a local taco shop as their headquarters, and there they eat mole, do homework, and plot murders, protection schemes and drug sales.

The gang turns on Dove and his brother Benny, and they kill Benny, but they only maim Dove. He is rescued by some local Mormon Native Americans. He reads the Book of Mormon, is baptized, and goes out in the spirit of Captain Moroni to battle the bad guys.

Who are the "bad guys"? The worst of them is The General. He has developed biological weapons, and is using them to wipe out entire populations along the Mexican-American border. (The story, by the way, takes place in San Diego and environs.) His chief assistant, a fellow named Slick, is a really evil fellow. Dove and his compatriots must find some way to stop The General, and they must go through Slick to get to him. Ultimately they meet on the battlefield, but more about that later.

Interwoven throughout the book are letters of a Nigerian man to his son who is serving a mission in Japan. I counted about 40 pages of these letters. Each one reads like a Conference talk, but filled with prophetic warnings and what was intended to sound like a solid understanding of endtime dangers. I found several of these letters to be somewhat odious, and it was never explained why the writer's ethnicity (Nigerian) mattered.

The Galen and Dove stories are the central threads. There are several others, but they are unimportant to the storyline. In keeping with the "Seventh Seal" theme, however, there are plenty of earthquakes and other natural disasters that cause unrelated havoc around the world.

The first third or so of this book is, well, just dreadful. Happily, the writing gets better as the book moves on, but only to fall completely apart at the end.

In some places, the writing is just so overwrought that it becomes nearly unreadable. Consider the following, from an early portion of the book:

Sure enough, the mercenary femme was shooting at Rose out of her own pile of industrial debris, her assets bouncing in a way calculated to distract her opponents, and returned fire with two howitzer-sized hand cannons. The barrel disappeared into independent atoms, and Cesare's ego went down in a burst of crimson glop that completely obscured his vision. (p. 69)

I don't know where to begin in commenting on such prose. Writers will sometimes fish for modifying words that will enhance their nouns and verbs. And often they will pad their writing with verbiage that seems to them flowery and articulate. Sometimes they make good choices; sometimes they don't. And when a writer lives to modify every noun and every verb, you eventually run out of adjectives and adverbs. You simply run out of ways of saying the same thing, and so you resort to awkward and misguided writing.

I was glad to see that the authors decided to give up their endless quest for modifiers as the book went on, and chose to focus on character and plot. The writing becomes more spare, more precise. And, in fact, the book becomes an enjoyable read, with plenty of suspense and some surprises. But how many readers will hang on long enough to discover that there is something worth reading further on? Frankly, if I weren't reading the book for review, I would never have finished it.

Two larger problems plague this book, and they are worth noting.

First, there is a (barely disguised) conservative Republican agenda, a contempt for what might be termed the political left (and even for the political middle) and an embracing of the political right. The Drapers thus deliver something of a political tract that is better left to political writers. Draper has one of her characters, the Nigerian fellow who writes to his missionary son, saying the following:

Too many people equate legal with moral. The result is a society that plays word games (as the modern damnable proverb says, "It depends on what the meaning of 'is' is") and thereby feels moral. (p. 118)

A gratuitous swipe at Bill Clinton? "Damnable proverb"? Sure, why not. As long as you're blaming all the ills of our society on a) liberals and b) the Whore of Babylon (as this father does), you may as well sweep as many of the wicked ones into your net as possible.

Later, again in the context of one of these letters, the authors take another swipe at the left:

According to all we hear, it [AllSafe] guarantees complete safety against any and all infections. The "porn industry" and other immoral elements of society are rallying behind it. The religious gay community (yes, there is one), answering the charge that AIDS was God's curse against their perversion, is boasting that AllSafe is the divine sign that God accepts their lifestyle. (p. 363-4)

That any person living in the present, no less the future, should find a community of gay Christians to be surprising is just astonishing. To group them with the "porn industry and other "immoral elements of society" will surely cause offense among some Latter-day Saints.

There is no denying that there is a political agenda interwoven throughout the book.

The second problem is the Drapers' tendency to minimize, mock and treat with contempt those who are unlike them. Typical is the following. The context is a series of protests being held against the Church at its new headquarters in Jackson County, MO:

Another protest replaced the Christian political rally; the signs were the same, the slogans on the signs changed. "The Mormons are pouring money into illegal political pressure!" a gay rights protester snarled. The triangle tattoo on his forehead distorted as he scowled... (p. 158)

If you're detecting a homophobic bent to the book, you're right. And when you're reduced to depicting gay rights protesters as having "triangle tattoos on their heads, then, well, your credibility, in my opinion, is gone.

But let's move on. At several points, the plot choices are simply inexplicable. A few examples:

When Merry Galen reaches Salt Lake City, she reports to a General Authority, gets the wheels moving to expose the dangers of AllSafe, and then wants nothing more than to rest. During the past few weeks, she has been relentlessly pursued by the murderous minions of MedaGen, who have access to an enormous amount of personal information, including Merry's friends, the places she frequents, her phone and credit card records, etc. When the Church offers to secure an apartment for her, she opts to stay with her in-laws, who live in Provo. What??? Does she really think the super-sleuths at MedaGen don't know where the in-laws live? Does she think that they won't look there first? Oddly, no one tells her this is a really bad idea.

Our friend Dove, who has been baptized and is now out fighting the bad guys, captures the baddest of the guys, the aforementioned Slick, who has a direct link to The General, the mastermind behind the whole nefarious biological weapons plot. (It isn't apparent that there is any intersection between the Dove story and the Galen plotline. At least I couldn't find one, other than the implied evil that undergirded the bad people who populate this book.)

Dove is reluctant to outright kill Slick. And so he offers Slick a deal -- if he will just stop doing bad things, and go back to The General and tell him to stop doing bad things, too, he'll let him go. Huh???? Frankly, I don't know what to say. Happily, Slick makes one last attempt to kill Dove, and Dove ends up blowing him away. Sigh, all's well that ends well.

There is, of course, a lot of moral ambiguity in this book. Take Merry Galen. She lies to get her job, steals information from the computer, etc. While the authors are quick to condemn, among others, alcohol and coffee drinkers, they stand silent at the incredible moral laxness of some of the main characters. Dove, newly baptized, goes forth to assemble an army of killers and arsonists. What's going on here? One of Merry's friends has a daughter who is an accomplished liar, and manages to fend off an attack by some MedaGen goons. Her ability to lie in times of crisis is lauded.

The great tragedy of this book is the lost opportunity. I mentioned LaHaye and Jenkins earlier. Jenkins is a good writer; the books sell well. At there are lengthy segments of this book that are written very well. Some of the action scenes are gripping and suspenseful. And once the Drapers decide to put aside their conservative religious and political agenda, they put together an exciting story. But I can't see the sense in wading through nearly 500 pages to get to the good writing.

I express a (cautious) hope that the Drapers give it another try. And I would offer the following advice:

1. Tone down the moralizing and demeaning references to people who are not like you. They are unworthy of good Mormon literature. There are any number of fine authors within the LDS community who have proven that you can discuss these issues and maintain some credibility in the process. Your own extreme right-wing bias makes your argument less credible.

2. Avoid having so many storylines, they're just too confusing, too difficult to follow. You introduce so many characters at the beginning of the book that the reader will have a great deal of trouble remembering "who's who." If you must populate your books with so many characters, at least give the reader a list of characters.

3. Be sensitive to plot turns that cause the reader to wonder about the intelligence of the characters. Some of the situations are just too facile to be believable.

I really can't recommend this book. I'm sorry about that. The Drapers seem well-intentioned, and I wish them well in their future endeavors.

Jeff Needle
jeff.needle@general.com