I read this book when it was being passed around with a word-of-mouth recommendation. Otherwise I wouldn't have finished it because the story is just boring and the writing not good quality. The author should have collaborated with a professional writer, and perhaps made the book into a sci-fi or fantasy novel. As it stands, you can't tell if it's meant to be fiction or non-fiction. The first person telling of the story left the main character with no name, something I still remember as a distraction. I knew the book was a best-seller but was still surprised to see so many on LT have read it.

It has some intriguing ideas powering the nine prophecies and I'm sure the author just wanted to get those out into the world in some format. I feel the intentions were good but you can't heap too many strange ideas on people all at once or they become defensive and confused. I certainly found the end of the book very futuristic, but it's presented as if this is going to be happening any time now.

The author took a chance and put his ideas out there and should be commended for that. I did find some interesting things in the book at a time when they weren't so available for reading. Now you can buy the book 'The Secret' at Target. The nine prophesies sort of remind me of Maslow's pyramid, leading to self-actualization, which is all over the place in textbooks. Then we all turn into beings reminiscent of the ones in the movie AI at the end when humans are all gone.

I've read the other two books in the series and have since moved them on to other readers. The spiritual subject of the book is forthright and speculative. If read out of curiousness and with an open mind, it can be worthwhile and thought-provoking. It won't however be the best novel you've ever read. ( )

Note: My review is based on the story through the film, not by reading the book.DH and I received this movie via Netflix and when it arrived neither of us remembered ordering it. DH assumes that perhaps it was a "suggestion" from other movies we chose. It was a really interesting film that causes one to think. I am a little caught, because for an idea of a story it is interesting and does keep a captive audience. The acting was fairly good although the green screen and some scenes could have been much better. Finishing the film, DH and I discussed the film and the ideas within a bit, and although they are likable, it is a little uncomfortable, because they seem to be those ideas in disguise that pull you away from the whole truth while arguing that they are harmless to what you know to be truth. Overall, good evening watch, but not a keeper for me. I'm not sure that I would recommend it, but be your own guide. Just remember Jesus Christ gave us truth and a handbook to explain it all. ( )

Note: My review is based on the story through the film, not by reading the book.DH and I received this movie via Netflix and when it arrived neither of us remembered ordering it. DH assumes that perhaps it was a "suggestion" from other movies we chose. It was a really interesting film that causes one to think. I am a little caught, because for an idea of a story it is interesting and does keep a captive audience. The acting was fairly good although the green screen and some scenes could have been much better. Finishing the film, DH and I discussed the film and the ideas within a bit, and although they are likable, it is a little uncomfortable, because they seem to be those ideas in disguise that pull you away from the whole truth while arguing that they are harmless to what you know to be truth. Overall, good evening watch, but not a keeper for me. I'm not sure that I would recommend it, but be your own guide. Just remember Jesus Christ gave us truth and a handbook to explain it all. ( )

Part Zen, part visualization techniques set in novel form. ( )

The book has substantial moments of truth in it. But it also has New Age mumbo-jumbo and seems contrived, in that it dresses itself as a true story yet it is fiction. So I wonder if the insights mentioned aren't more the New Age movements catechism then anything really supernatural. The New Age has a incredible temptation to it in that it seems so right, but any movement that puts human advancement ahead of carrying your cross and following Jesus leaves me empty. ( )