I know it's said that you can't judge a book by its cover, and this proved to be true for me regarding "The Final Summit" by Andy Andrews. In this case, I actually liked the cover design and the reviews on the back which called this a "riveting narrative" and compared the writing to C.S. Lewis. But when it came to reading the actual book, I found it to be extremely disappointing.
In this book, a fairly regular guy, David Ponder, is a time traveler who gets to meet with world leaders from history to help figure out how to save the word. Sounds interesting so far.
But do you find committee meetings riveting? The majority of this book takes place during a meeting - no action, not even disagreement among those attending the meeting - even though they were world leaders known for strong personalities. The quest to find the two words (here's a key that there will be no action) that will help save the world yields such tired phrases such as "restore hope" and "build character." Ironically, the final answer - "Do something" (sorry for the spoiler here)- stands in sharp contrast to the lack of action in the book.
If this book was published by a secular publisher, I would simply feel that this book was a poor read - but since it's published by a Christian publisher, my disappointment is more profound. Nowhere is Jesus or faith in God mentioned as the answer for our world. Also, the summit meeting is supposedly happening in heaven - the Benjamin Franklin character even indicates that many got there at the last minute - having almost gone to the alternate destination. This book is written from a worldview of universalism as it has characters in "heaven" like Cleopatra (a pagan) and Albert Einstein (an atheist) among many others who did not espouse a Christian belief when they were alive.
I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.
