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A review by josiahdegraaf
The Last Sacrifice by Hank Hanegraaff
3.0
While an enticing sequel to the previous book, The Last Sacrifice suffers heavily from a lack of clear direction.
Pros:
A lot of the pros from the previous book still stand. The characters are still interesting and complicated, the eschatological view is still great, and the book is still page-turning and very hard to put down. While none of these are as top-line as in book one, they're still good enough to keep the book interesting.
Cons:
While this was present in the previous book, this becomes very noticeable in this book: namely, that the book as a whole doesn't have a real plot. There's no discernable goals for many of the characters, other than to stay alive and escape. As a result, the story is mostly driven by the character's reactions to events rather than acting to events. And so you don't really feel like the story has gotten anywhere at the end of the book. It has set up the last book really well. But it feels like, plot-wise, that's all the story is: set-up. And so while it was an enjoyable read, it feels like it should be 50% shorter and part of Book 3, instead of its own separate book.
As a follow-up to the above point, the book has a really abrupt ending. Not as in a cliff-hanger ending--I love good cliff-hanger endings like Empire Strikes Back or Catching Fire. But it really feels like the author just chose an arbitrary point to split Book 2 and Book 3. There's no real climax to this book.
Overall:
This book is a lot weaker than Book One, mostly because, while this happened in book one as well, it just becomes really clear that there's no real plot for each book in the series: the plot is just an overarching one in the series as a whole. This makes each book feel more like an installment in a TV series than a book that is solely good on its own merits. Because most of this book is a set-up for Book 3, then, a lot of how good this book is depends on how good Book 3 ends up being. If Book 3 blows me away, then the set-up was at least partially worth it. Otherwise, while the story is engaging and a fun read, the lack of structure really hurts the story.
2.5 stars. (Okay)
Pros:
A lot of the pros from the previous book still stand. The characters are still interesting and complicated, the eschatological view is still great, and the book is still page-turning and very hard to put down. While none of these are as top-line as in book one, they're still good enough to keep the book interesting.
Cons:
While this was present in the previous book, this becomes very noticeable in this book: namely, that the book as a whole doesn't have a real plot. There's no discernable goals for many of the characters, other than to stay alive and escape. As a result, the story is mostly driven by the character's reactions to events rather than acting to events. And so you don't really feel like the story has gotten anywhere at the end of the book. It has set up the last book really well. But it feels like, plot-wise, that's all the story is: set-up. And so while it was an enjoyable read, it feels like it should be 50% shorter and part of Book 3, instead of its own separate book.
As a follow-up to the above point, the book has a really abrupt ending. Not as in a cliff-hanger ending--I love good cliff-hanger endings like Empire Strikes Back or Catching Fire. But it really feels like the author just chose an arbitrary point to split Book 2 and Book 3. There's no real climax to this book.
Overall:
This book is a lot weaker than Book One, mostly because, while this happened in book one as well, it just becomes really clear that there's no real plot for each book in the series: the plot is just an overarching one in the series as a whole. This makes each book feel more like an installment in a TV series than a book that is solely good on its own merits. Because most of this book is a set-up for Book 3, then, a lot of how good this book is depends on how good Book 3 ends up being. If Book 3 blows me away, then the set-up was at least partially worth it. Otherwise, while the story is engaging and a fun read, the lack of structure really hurts the story.
2.5 stars. (Okay)