1. Pam Halter says:

    What an interesting and thoughtful post, Shannon. I read the Left Behind series and enjoyed it very much, although I understood that storyline was Tim LaHaye’s interpretation of the end times. I haven’t read any other Biblical end times novels, but I have read three studies of Revelation and each one was different from the other. I’ve decided to go with what Jesus said about end times: Be ready. And that can look different for each person.

  2. Sherwood Smith says:

    Thank you, thank you, thank you.

  3. Great post! I LOVED Mark Carver’s version of an apocalyptic future with the Apollyon Saga. One thing Carver did was not make the series an End Times fiction but rather a fiction that had elements of the End Times theology interwoven through it, in my opinion anyway. Plus, once the story was over, there’s more on the horizon so he treated it as a moment in time and then on to something else. When I asked him if he were going to do anymore with it, he said no. Bummer!

    But I agree with what you said because the language is symbolic, what do we take literally or allegorically? How do we mesh it with our own particular view of the End Times? Or, as some of others well known people have said, is there an apocalyptic event we’re waiting for? Is just the rapture and then God’s judgment and then forever with Him without the grandeur of war on earth?

    We’ll see, as they say.

  4. Kathy E says:

    I think one of the most unusual End Times novels I’ve ever read is Shane Johnson’s “TheLast Guardian.”. That might be because you don’t even realize that’s what it is until well into the story.  It just seems like an unusual time &/or dimensional travel story until he starts to tie up the loose ends.  Is it the best written one? No. It’s decently written (IMHO); it’s the concept that was intriguing.

  5. Kathy E says:

    I think one of the most unusual End Times novels I’ve ever read is Shane Johnson’s “The Last Guardian.”. That might be because you don’t even realize that’s what it is until well into the story.  It just seems like an unusual time &/or dimensional travel story with scary monsters … until he starts to tie up the loose ends.  Is it the best written one? No. It’s decently written (IMHO). It’s the approach that was intriguing.

    One of the most disappointing facets of End Times novels to me is their attempts to depict the New Heavens & New Earth. It’s all too depressing if they don’t try (what’s all the fighting been for?) and most often equally depressing if they do try bec ause they fail! As mentioned, C.S. Lewis comes the closest in The Last Battle because he tries to give a sense of realized wonder and joy for the characters who’ve made it to Aslan’s Country. As we all know though, there’s only one C.S. Lewis!

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    • Kathy E says:

      Oops! Not sure only the first half got sent & then my completed comment. Aha, there’s a gremlin in my tablet, that has to be it. Couldn’t *possibly* be a fumble on my part. ☺

       

  6. Good article. I have serious problems with “End Times” fiction for all the reasons you noted, and also because I believe that extrapolating and expounding on the incidental details of how these end of the world might play out (a la Left Behind) can end up making the whole scenario seem even more harsh than even the Bible does — or worse, come off smug and silly.

    Small nit for whoever wrote up the headline, though: it’s “subgenre”, not “subgrene”. 😀

What do you think?