Book Review

I received Andy Andrews' book, The Final Summit, for a review.

About the book:

David Ponder is back. This time the fate of mankind is in his hands.

This is mankind's last chance. Centuries of greed, pride, and hate have sent humanity hurtling toward disaster, and far from its original purpose. There is only one solution that can reset the compass and right the ship, and it consists of only two words.

With time running out, it is up to David Ponder and a cast of history's best and brightest minds to uncover this solution before it is too late. The catch? They are allowed only five tries to discover the answer.

Readers first encountered David Ponder in The Traveler's Gift. Now, in The Final Summit, Andrews combines a riveting narrative with astounding history in order to show us the one thing we must do when we don't know what to do.

Many years have passed since David Ponder discovered the Seven Decisions during a divine journey through time. Now 74 years old, Ponder has lost the one thing that mattered to him most: his wife, Ellen. Despite his personal and professional success, he now sits alone at the top of his 55-story high-rise contemplating the unthinkable, just as he did 28 years ago.

However, just as things are looking their darkest, Ponder is informed through divine channels that he is needed now more than ever. Together, with the help of hundreds of his fellow Travelers, from Winston Churchill to George Washington Carver to Joan of Arc, he must work to discover the one solution that will save humanity. Time is running out, and the final summit of Travelers must work quickly to avoid dire consequences.

The Final Summit explores the historically proven principles that have guided our greatest leaders for centuries, and how we might restore these principles in our own lives...before it's too late.

My Thoughts:

The Final Summit is a sequel to Andy Andrews' The Traveler's Gift. I hadn't read the first book and had no trouble picking up with the storyline.

The story is an engaging tale of David Ponder who is called to a meeting by the archangel Gabriel for the purposes of figuring out 2 words that will ultimately save humanity. He isn't alone in this meeting. He is surrounded by many other "travelers" who just happen to be some of the greatest minds and most accomplished people in history.

I wasn't sure what to expect when reading this. On the positive side, it is a fanciful tale that is enjoyable if strictly taken on fiction merits. The writing is good and there are very interesting historical facts scattered throughout the story.

However, this book is presented as anything from self help to personal transformation to spirituality. And that is where the biggest problems lie.

If you are looking to be motivated simply to do something, anything, then this book is probably a good one. But if you are looking for something deep, something meaningful, something beyond yourself, this book doesn't deliver.

My biggest problem with this book is the idea that God has sent Gabriel to gather these travelers.

"You are at a turning point. You--the human race--are balanced on a precipice and He is not pleased. Just as Amos once pled for the nation of Israel, so now the Travelers are being convened with an opportunity to avoid what seems to me, the inevitable." (page 32,33)

"Together you will convene with the opportunity to examine the accumulated wisdom of the past in order to determine your future. Or if there is even to be a future on this earth--" (page 35)

"Were it my choice, David Ponder," Gabriel said calmly, "I might have turned my back on you years ago. But He still has hope, though He is heart is heavy and patience decidedly thin." (page 35)

God apparently called the meeting because He needs help deciding if and how humanity can be saved.

For me, there are just too many problems with this idea for the book to be enjoyable.

At the end of the meeting, the 2 words that are supposed to save humanity? Do Something. I was expecting a little more from the greatest minds in history.

The problem for me isn't necessarily what the book says (though I do have major problems with spiritual premise of the book) because it is, at the end of the day, a fiction book. My biggest problem, I suppose, is the idea that this book is being promoted in the spiritual growth and Christian thought departments.

Aside from the brief mention God gets in calling the meeting, there is no Christian thought. The ideas presented in the meeting are at best virtues and at worst cheesy platitudes that may or may not work in life but sound good when said by really accomplished people.

**Thanks to Thomas Nelson Publishers for sending this book in exchange for my honest review.**