Review by reneelu1998 -- The End-Time Foretellers

[ReneeBrown]

[Following is a volunteer review of "The End-Time Foretellers" by Ran Weber.]

---

4 out of 4 stars

---

Share This Review

---

Yoav lives a peaceful and purposely boring life selling video games to pre-pubescent kids. On the surface, he seems to be an average guy. But actually, Yoav is a skilled computer hacker with a military history and a dark past. He refuses to do anymore shady jobs after the accidental death of his best friend. But when his old con-artist boss shows up again, Yoav knows he will have to do this one last job. The Iranians want to send over a nuclear missile to Israel, and behind it all is a mysterious and unknown group called the End-Time Foretellers. Yoav assumes they are just lunatic religious fanatics messing around with codes, but once he hacks his way into their community forums he realizes the whole world is in danger. It’s up to Yoav to stop the End-Time Foretellers however he can, but he’s in for a shocking discovery.

I greatly enjoyed The End-Time Foretellers by Ran Weber. It’s not something I would normally read, but I was intrigued by the title. I do not regret it. Ran Weber intricately weaves plot and character development with excellent, realistic dialogue. All of the characters are fleshed out and have their own unique personality.The best aspect of this book is the main character, who exceeded my expectations.

It’s hard for me to describe exactly why I love the main character so much. On the surface, he seems like an uncompelling character whose past catches up with him. But the more we get to know him, the more we can see his earnest desire to make a difference in the world. He wants to save the world. As the reader, you can really feel his subtle, deep aching from the loss of his best friend and the gaping hole he needs to fill before he can feel reconciled with his past. At first, I thought Yoav joined the hacker team because he was blackmailed into it, but by the end of the book he experiences a huge character arch where we see his honest intentions and desires to make up for what he’s lost. Even though he seems to be running from his past, and tries to resign himself to a boring, uneventful life, his soul yearns for reconciliation. Little does he know he will find that reconciliation on the journey he goes through.

This book was written very intelligently and yet I never felt lost or bored with any of the hacking stuff. I actually thought it was pretty cool and showed how experienced Yoav is. None of it seemed unrealistic, it just seemed awesome. I liked how there was no clear-cut villain, but throughout the whole story you are suspicious of who might be backstabbing who and what everyone’s real intentions are. You want to look out for Yoav and you don’t want him to get hurt.

I would give this book 4 out of 4 stars. It was extremely well-written, had a compelling plot, and a courageous, underdog-type main character. This book was clearly professionally edited as I didn’t notice any grammatical errors. One thing that I thought was weird and a weakness of the book was that there was not one single female character. Not one. I think some female characters would have added to the story. Overall, worth the read. I would recommend this to everyone. There is no cussing or graphic violence.

******
The End-Time Foretellers
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon

[Erin Painter Baker]

I also would have been bumped by there being no female characters in the book. That just seems odd. But otherwise, while it doesn't seem like a book I would read, it does feel like a movie or tv series I would watch.

[Wambui-nj]

Although I'm not a fan of Sci-fi books, this one sounds interesting. I would love to read it. Great review.

[Kelyn]

I'm not sure whether this book is supposed to be mystery, action or very light sci-fi. I get more of a mystery feel from it than anything. Although the plot does sound slightly interesting with the computer hacking aspect, I'm just not into mysteries. For now, I think I'll give this one a pass. Thanks for the review, I enjoyed reading it!