First of all, I gave this book 1 star because it doesn't seem technically possible to give it zero stars (or better yet, negative). I assumed going into that this book would be pretty awful and in that, it didn't disappoint. At least I gained some insight into the Fundamentalist mentality. I guess I can see why the present accelerating environmental destruction and dismantling of social welfare would be of less concern if you are driven by a preoccupation with the end times and paranoia of the U.N. becoming some all-powerful world government.

Admittedly, I didn't read this book very closely. Scanning a few sentences on each page was enough to capture its wretchedness. Given that these books are apparently written by one author quickly outlining the overall plot and the second author churning out finished pages as quickly as he can type them, why should I put more effort into reading them than is put into writing them?

The dialog is wooden, cliched, laughable, and even repetitious. The same stupid things are said over and over. The characters are mere sketches with no depth and are completely uninteresting.

For such a high concept book, the plot is pretty boring and very little actually happens. Some of the plot elements are just insanely stupid and improbable, the Russian attack on Israel, the spies and super agents, the utterly ridiculous super fertilizer (makes deserts bloom) which somehow seems to be the main driving plot device, and the completely cartoonish political figures and manoeuvring (the political intrigue(??) behind the election of a Secretary-General of the U.N.).

Then, the book ends with a super dramatic event which propels you into the rest of the series. Well, for myself, I will be blissfully be left behind and leave the rest of you all to suffer the trials and tribulations of the rest of the (presumably equally awful) books in the series.