Nicolae Carpathia, the Supreme Potentate of all the earth has been murdered unexpectedly at a worldwide gala in Jerusalem. As the Global Community authorities study videos of Carpathia's murder and the body itself, they come up with differing opinions of the cause of death. As millions of worshipers flock to New Babylon to attend his funeral and mourn his death, the Tribulation Force are keeping their eyes on Carpathia's dead body, waiting for the moment when Satan will indwell the corpse and rule the world for himself. David Hassid and Annie Christopher see firsthand the evil that is brewing in New Babylon-namely the outright worship of the Antichrist. Meanwhile, the stateside Trib Force begins a relocation project to the abandoned city of Chicago while the GC is distracted with Carpathia's funeral. It's only a matter of time before Satan enters the corpse of the world's most loved man and begins to take the throne-namely rule the world-for a time.
Time comes to a halt in this seventh installment of the Left Behind series as it is the first and last book to contain no judgements. The Indwelling spends a painful amount of time on the attention to detail and the dissection of the three days the Antichrist lies in state, describing every little detail of the funeral. While there are many other good plot elements, this fact keeps the book from being five stars.
Chaim Rozenweig becomes a better character than he ever was in this book because the authors suddenly "turn on" his personality. The same is done with David Hassid, in that he is no longer a Trib Force spy tool. Otherwise, there are no other career moves in the character department. All other characters stay the same.
It seemed as though the authors wanted another suspenseful end, namely Carpathia coming back to life, thus they slowed time down dramatically and did not institute any judgements. While there is a single key character death as a product of another rescue mission, this book is mostly a waste of time. Had the authors not been so intent on writing another suspenseful end, this book could have been five stars. This book makes the series very time-inconsistent. However, one could say that The Indwelling is another transitional novel like Nicolae, this time transitioning the series into the Great Tribulation.
The good thing about the Great Tribulation is that the authors can no longer produce Hollywood-ish judgements and protect their special characters. It's time to get down to the nitty-gritty in the final five books ahead, and I'm interested to see what will happen.
4 stars
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