I was truly hooked by Left Behind. However, I thought Tribulation Force was a bit long winded. Then I was caught up in Nicolae and Soul Harvest. I thought a streak of excellent story lines would be coming. Alas! Then came Apollyon and I found myself wanting to skip pages. The "fillers" had returned. I know about the character's pasts, I read the books. Moreover, I really do not need each book to go over the same personal details again and again when the story could be moving on. I simply found Apollyon boring. I do not plan to give up on the series yet, because the overall story is interesting. I am not religous, but this series made me think about the meaning of the Bible. However, even with this in mind, if the next book in the series uses old details as "filler", I may see this as a ploy to make more books than necessary (meaning more money to be spent by readers). I would find this truly sad considering the impact of some of the earlier books.