Those two guys who have written all those books in the "Left Behind" series have released another one, a prequel novel entitled, appropriately enough, "The Rapture."I don't question that these things are popular. I know there are plenty of people who would be inclined to read them... well... religiously. Hell, they may even be well-written books -- I've never read one, so I can't say for sure.
I don't question that the writers are still spitting out sequels and prequels at this point. Everyone else is doing it. The things are like The Wheel of Time or Harry Potter or something, for a different cross-section of the population. So hey... if you've found your cash cow, milk it for all it's worth.
What I do question is the release date for this particular book. It came out today, 6/6/06. I'm not saying that everyone -- I would hope not even a significant percentage of the people -- who reads this series actually thought the world would end today. But some did. So what's the point of publishing a book on the day the world's supposed to end, and much of your intended audience is going to be whisked away in a puff of smoke or something to live in the kingdom of heaven?
Of course, the answer is: it's all marketing. Despite the completely opposing subject matter and intended audience, this is no different from the thinking of the movie studio that released the remake of The Omen today.
4 comments:
When you're whisked away to the kingdom of heaven, you still need reading material. They hoped you would be able to buy the book before the actual whisking took place.
Or maybe it was just hype. Did the world end yesterday? I haven't heard the news yet.
there are some zeros and a two that mess up the superstition. it was really 6/6/2006.
what really is disturbing is the x# of pregnant women who forced childbirth a day earlier to avoid the bad birthday. that's just not right...
the mole
"Hell, they may even be well-written books -- I've never read one, so I can't say for sure."
Let's see, I made it through about one and a half books in the series. I wasn't impressed.
Not only do they keep putting out the pre/sequels, I believe there's a whole series specifically for young adults, or maybe younger children.
Have you seen the video game based on this series of books? Apparently it's okay to shoot people in a post-rapture world if they don't believe in God and they refuse to convert, which is odd, because isn't that supposed to be all that's left after the rapture anyway?
I wouldn't have believed there was a way to make Left Behind more objectionable than the books are, but I was so, so wrong.
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