THE FINAL SUMMIT - book review

From the back cover:  "David Ponder is back --- and this time, the fate of mankind may be in his hands."

The Final Summit was my first introduction to both author Andy Andrews, and his "everyman" protagonist, David Ponder.  Readers of Mr. Andrews' book The Traveler's Gift (2002) will be familiar with David Ponder and his time traveling adventures; however, the easy prose and background information makes it more than possible to read The Final Summit as a standalone.  I read this book with no expectations, other than the categorization from Thomas Nelson Publishers that this book fell under "Spiritual Growth and Christian Thought."   By the end of the book, I was certainly thinking, but it was certainly not along the lines of spiritual growth.  

More or less, the book starts out with David Ponder contemplating his life after the recent loss of his wife, along with the possibility of ending it all.  Characters are briefly introduced in the prologue, presumably to help demonstrate the exemplary man David Ponder is, and then are gone as quickly as they came.  David is alone in his sky-rise company/home, "pondering" how to go on living without the love of his life, and nostalgically rehashing his previous time-traveling journeys, the persons he met on those journeys and the Seven Decisions or principles they helped David acquire.

The archangel Gabriel appears to David in what can only be described as a rather underwhelming encounter, and explains that David is needed to lead a summit of fellow travelers in order to save humanity from disaster - i.e., Gabriel hints that God is losing patience, and might once again "wipe the slate clean" and start over, as He did with the Flood. There is only one solution, according to Gabriel, that can save the human race before time runs out and David, along with selected advisers, are permitted only five attempts to come up with the two-word answer. The question: "What does humanity need to do, individually and collectively, to restore itself to the pathway toward successful civilization?" Predictably, David and cohorts Winston Churchill, Joan of Arc, Abraham Lincoln, Eric "Red" Erickson, King David and George Washington Carver offer five answers to the question, all of which are wrong. At literally the end of the sands of time, and having failed in their five attempts to answer THE Question, a Civil War hero shouts, "Do something!" Lo and behold, the answer is found, humanity is "saved" because Gabriel allows David & Co. to argue the merits of "doing something" (versus not doing anything). The archangel allows them to put their answer to humanity's successful pathway into "A Personal Declaration," which sounds like something one would hear at a personal motivation seminar.

It was interesting and entertaining to read some of the historical background pertaining to various characters, such as Eric Erickson. On the other hand, the account of King David was mildly disturbing at best. A man who relied on the God of Israel for his strength and salvation since he was a shepherd boy and was called "a man after God's own heart," offers up self-discipline and "control over oneself" as the answer to the proposed question, as well as the explanation for how he was able to kill the lion, the bear and the giant Goliath. Seriously?? King David's character even states that when he disciplined himself as a shepherd, then as a warrior and a young ruler, and even as a father, his "life's results were predictable. I killed a giant. I led armies. ... I was a good father when I disciplined myself." This King David bears little to no resemblance to the David of the Bible, who attributed his strength, power and successes to God alone. And when did God EVER promise us predictability?

There were several times in the book where the weaving in of political ideology became as distracting as a gnat you keep swatting at but can't quite manage to hit. The author tends to oversimplify the entire World and compartmentalize it to the United States, and thus his statements about Adolf Hitler's rise to power seem a bit odd and out of place with the self-help cadence of the book - almost as though one had accidentally switched radio stations and ended up on talk radio. "During a time of economic uncertainty in a nation of people desperate for identity and longing for better times" ... "[t]his man of the common people--as Hitler called himself--stood up, looked them in the eye, and lied. He promised more and better and new and different. He vowed rapid change and swift action." James Michener does a far better job revealing the layers of identity crisis, mythology and power vacuum that led Germany and others to embrace the ideals of Aryanism and succumb to Naziism and a despot/mass murderer.

More frustrating than the lack of cohesiveness - is it historical/political/spiritual/self-help/comedy/fiction - is the fact that The Final Summit is described as "Spiritual Growth and Christian Thought." Had I read this book without that categorization, it would have been far more palatable. As it was, however, I kept turning pages waiting to see the Source of Truth acknowledged, the realization that "doing something" is meaningless without the redeeming work of Jesus Christ (the entire time I was reading, in the back of my head was Jesus' answer to the religious establishment in response to their question of what was the greatest commandment: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and all your mind, and all your soul; and the second is like it - to love your neighbor as yourself). Love was mentioned by one of the Travelers, as were charity and a few other, errr, Biblical mandates, but they were quickly passed over.

There's so much to be said for proper packaging - and this book fails in a large sense because of how it is marketed. While I cannot speak for Andy Andrews' other books, comparing him to C.S. Lewis and Alfred Hitchcock is absurd at best. Read it as a self-help novel, and it will be fine.


DISCLOSURE: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson as part of the BookSneeze program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.