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OK, so you've heard all the news about the Left Behind series. You may not view the end times in the same perspective as LaHaye and Jenkins, but one thing to consider is its merits on the basis of literature. OK, well, fun fiction at least. Although the series can claim "NY Times Best Seller" status really, at least to me, doesn't mean much. Most of the books on my reading list have never even come close to a "cream of the crop" list. Still, I like the books, for one reason or another.

I'm not going into a lengthy review, or a critical analysis of the series. Suffice it to say, there are a couple of the books of the series that I think are MUCH better than others, and some that barely scrape into the category of 'pulp fiction'. On one primary level, they are fun speculative fiction. Then, there is the spiritual aspect of the books. Personally, I was able to glean much from the books. More from some specific books than others.

To me, the best book of the series is the first one. That first book was given to me by my wife for Christmas in 1998. I hate to say that I had never heard of the series, and I'm not exactly sure why she got it for me. She just knew I liked to read. Anyway, I set it on my shelf, for I love books. There it sat. I tried to read it once and got a few pages and put it back. Then, some years later, in 2000, I had a hernia surgery. Well, I was sort of stuck at home. I needed something to read. AH, that book. I propped myself up, carefully, and with a can of pop and a couple Vicodin in me I began to read. I was hooked by the end of the first chapter. I read the book in about a day, and I'm a slow reader! I immediately had my wife go to the library and get me as many of the next books in the series as she could. She did. After reading through all the ones that there were at that time, I began to read the Kids series. I read up to book 8 and then stopped.

This last year I finally read the "final" book in the adult series; Glorious Appearing. Honestly, I didn't care much for it. I feel almost sacrilegious saying this, but the character of Jesus was so two dimensional. I guess I just felt myself dreading when he had any lines. Not that what he said was not important, but it was just lines lifted from the Bible. I guess I was expecting Him to have something new and original to say. There were some touching moments, but for the most part, I found myself plodding through to finish it. Boy, I hate confessing that. But, I guess, what I didn't like more was reading and rereading all those books, awaiting the final one, and being let down. Oh well. It's just a fictional book. Thankfully, the REAL Book, The Bible, isn't boring like that!!!

Enter, The Kids series...again. I decided to pick up the Kids series. I had started reading book, way back when, but got disinterested in it. Well, this time I stuck to it, and found myself getting into it. It still was a little slow, but not as bad as I remembered. Maybe the two-dimensional quality of the adult series prodded me to give the Kids series a bit more grace. I'm thankful for it. If you look at my reading list for 2004 you will notice that I couldn't get enough of the Kids series.

I don't know if it is just me, I enjoy juvenile fiction sometimes more than adult fiction. For instance, I love Heinlein's juvenile fiction, but don't care much at all for his "adult" works. The same, to a lesser degree, goes for the Left Behind series. I find that the Kids series have more depth not only in plot, but mostly in character. They seem real. They do logical things. They seem to confront more realistic situations, or at least have to deal with them more realistically. Perhaps one thing I got tired of with the adult series was how all the main characters were jet setting with the evil elite. They seemed to be there in the center of "it all", I mean, right there in the forefront, let alone, the middle of it!

And yes, the "kids" are in the thick of it too, but they seem to be more on the sidelines. But then, that series is subordinate to the adult series, but for me, it makes it a little easier to swallow. I think too, the whole thing with the character development makes my favor tip toward the Kids series. I would tell somebody to read the Adult series, but I would heartily recommend the Kids series if they had to choose.

I'm not sure what the reason for the difference is, but perhaps it is due to the "contributing" of the "with Chris Fabry"? I don't know. I tend to believe that Chris Fabry does a little more than "contribute" a minor role, but more, I think that he does the majority of the writing. That is the only reason that I can think of for the reason that the writing quality of the Kids series seems to be a little better than that of the adult series.

Don't get me wrong, the adult series is good, fun, and edifying to read, but for me, I am more hooked on the Kids series.