The Earths Last Days, The Battle Begins

Apocalypse Dawn
By Mel Odom
Published 2003

The Future: Tension exisits around the globe. No where is this more evident then the ever volatal Middle East where yet another attack on Israel has failed. To the north Syrian troops have massed along the border with Turkey to aid PKK Guerillas (Kurdistan Workers Party). In response a UN force has been deployed, among these troops are the 75th Rangers and First Sergent Samual Adams Gander aka "Goose". When a CIA agent named Cody asks for help in rescuing a deep cover agent named "Icarus" Goose and his men volunteer... but the rescue steps up the Syrian plans. The Syrian army, preceded by dozens of SCUD missiles, invades. In the midst of battle soldiers mysteriously vanish, simmilar occurences occur around the globe pushing the world to the brink of war. Now Goose has to fight to reach the safety of Sanliurfa, well his wife deals with the aftermath of the global dissaperances. Meanwhile Navy Chaplin Delroy Harte believes he has an answer for the disapperances...it's the Rapture, but he'll have to deal with an unbelieving Joint Chiefs and a tormenting demon to prove it. Mel Odom writes well enough and the battle scenes are excellent, however the need to constintly throw in Christian theology (Evengilical Christian) nocks the book down a bit. Not the I have a problem with spirtuality in my books, it's just that most of the scenes dealing with religion seem ether A) Preachy or B) Forced. The subplot dealing with Goose's wife is also only average fair, and her problems with her teenage son (who absolutly screams sterotype) are more annoying then entertaining. Final Verdict, well done, but certainly not a must read by any stretch of the imagination.

** out of ****

NOTE: Apocalypse Dawn is a spin off from the Left Behind series, which remain unread, as of this date by myself.