The Mark

Left Behind, Volume 8

By: Tim LaHaye, Jerry B. Jenkins

Narrated by: Frank Muller

Length: 8 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

Those who were left behind after the Rapture must now make a crucial decision. Each person must choose whether to receive the mark of the beast, or die. Never has faith in God been more important for the group of believers called the Tribulation Force, who now face danger on all sides. Valiantly, they continue to urge new followers to accept Christ's love. Noted scriptural authority Tim LaHaye provides outlines for the vivid biblical prophecies in The Mark and the other books in the series. Best-selling author Jerry B. Jenkins creates the dramatic stories for each fast-paced apocalyptic thriller. With Audie Award-winning narrator Frank Muller's powerful performance, The Mark takes on additional dramatic force.

The Left Behind series has topped best seller lists across the country, been the subject of special features in national media, and captured the attention of Hollywood producers. With sales in the tens of millions, the Left Behind books are the biggest selling inspirational series of all time.

Browse the entire Left Behind series.

©2000 Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins (P)2000 Recorded Books, LLC

Story still engaging

Story kept me engaged...narrator was had to get past. It was a poor decision to have Carpathia sound like the Count from Sesame Street.

Will try at different speeds to see if that helps.

Narrator, Not so good

These books are awesome, but the narrator is not so good. Hard to listen to and was not so excited to get the next one when I read who the narrator would be.

Love the book, dislike the narrator

I blew through the first 7 books in this series in just 6 weeks. This book however has a new narrator and I can not stand his cadence. He ends every sentence very breathy. I don't know how to explain it, but it's super distracting.

Excellent Story, Jarring Narration.

As I have said in my reviews of each previous book in the series till this point: If you are a Christian, I would recommend this book to you not only as an excellent work of fiction but as a kind of companion to a Bible study of the book of Revelation. While I am not a minister or a Bible scholar, as a Christian these books are very accurate, and I know my understanding of the book of Revelation has been expanded through this series.
If you are not a Christian, I would recommend this book to you as an excellent work of fiction (which it is), and if it (re)awakens questions you haven’t asked in a very long time, if at all, then I would encourage you to seek answers like the characters in this series. Find a Bible and a church that preaches Christ, that if you are willing to hear it you may know the truth.
Beginning with the narration this time, the sudden switch from Ferrone to Muller was... jarring to say the least. While I’m sure if Recorded Books had Muller from the beginning I could’ve grown to like him a bit easier, and I did quite like certain areas of his narration, other aspects simply came across as distracting to me.
For one thing, Muller’s speed is much faster than Ferrone’s. After a couple of books Ferrone’s speed didn’t come across as slow so much as it did deliberate, really allowing you to soak up the narration. While Muller’s speed came across as dynamic and action packed in some spots, in others it simply felt rushed. After a while I had to turn the narration speed down to 0.9x just to be able to absorb the information and picture the scene.
Another thing is Muller’s accents. Frank Muller is a wonderful voice actor, this book is proof of it, but I don’t think he needed to do every voice in his repertoire when it wasn’t needed. For example, in the earliest parts of the series, Carpathia is described as having “a very faint Romanian accent”. This tells me that it influences the way he talks, but may not be immediately noticeable. However Muller’s portrayal has his accent so thick he might as well be voicing Dracula. Or Fortunato, who I’m 98% sure is Middle-Eastern, sounds like his previous job was being the false prophet for Al Capone.
As for the story, “The Mark” is on par with every previous book in this series, so excellent. The Biblical accuracy, the dialogue, the atmosphere, everything was portrayed beautifully in my opinion.
One thing that stuck out in my mind is the way the situation with Cheng was handled. While some of his decisions toward the end of the book (I refuse to provide spoilers) might not have been entirely realistic to what someone faced with that choice might have done, the way he acted did bring up a question that I hadn’t asked before, but was incredibly interested in hearing the answer to. The way they put Cheng in that situation for the sake of providing more information on something that might very well happen when this time period takes place is another reason I always say this book is like it’s own Bible study companion.
Overall I enjoyed this book and look forward to the next one.

Great book

Just want to say Frank Muller was excellent! His changing of voices was incredible and very entertaining!

The Mark

I love this series, and have almost all of them, all narrated by Richard Farrone. I'm up to "The Mark" now and while I still love the book, sorry, but this narrator STINKS! He makes some of the characters sound like Ricardo Montalban, some sound like Dracula, some like Porky Pig, and ALL sound stupid! EVERY sentence, even if he starts it in a normal tone of voice,ends with a whispery, almost come-hither voice.Not what you expect from the characters in this book! While the story is certainly worth listening to, this narrator is not. Bring back Richard Farrone, PLEASE!!

The Mark

The story is great but with the new narrator it was weird. He pronounced the name Zion differently than all the previous books. And it was weird hearing him make Carpathia sound like Dracula.

Story is always good

Muller is a ok narrator but his choice to use voices detracts from the reading.

great story, horrible reader

great story, the reader sounds like a 1940s baseball announcer reading a dick tracy novel

Left Behind Series is one of the best series

left Behind is one of the best series written.
It is interesting and keeps the integrity of the scriptures.