The Third Antichrist

Antichrist Trilogy #3

by Mario Reading

The third Antichrist is here, just as Nostradamus predicted—and Adam Sabir is the only man who can prevent hell from reigning on earth, in the final Nostradamus installment

Five centuries ago, Nostradamus wrote of three Antichrists. Two, Napoleon and Hitler, have already bathed the world in blood—but it is the third who will bring the Apocalypse. And his time has come. In the mountains of Moldova, a ruthless tyrant is hailed as the Second Coming of Christ. In the gypsy camps of Romania, a woman's unborn child could change the course of the world. In a polluted sinkhole in Mexico, four siblings pledge themselves to vengeance. Only scholar Adam Sabir, guardian of the lost prophecies of Nostradamus, knows what will happen when these destinies collide. He alone has decoded the identity of the Third Antichrist. He alone knows the one who can prevent this tyrant's rise. The fate of the world is in his hands. The countdown to Armageddon has begun.

Genres: Thriller, Fantasy, Fiction, Ebooks, Mystery

632 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Mario Reading was born in Dorset, and brought up in England, Germany, and the South of France. He was educated at Gorse Cliff Preparatory School, followed by Rugby School, and then went on to study Comparative Literature under Malcolm Bradbury and Angus Wilson at the University of East Anglia, where he specialized in French and German Literature and translation before absconding, after two years, on a cargo boat to Africa.

During a nomadic youth he sold rare books, taught riding in Cape Town, studied dressage in Vienna, played polo in India, France, Spain, and Dubai, ran a seventy horse polo stables in Gloucestershire, and helped manage his Mexican wife’s coffee plantation.

Reading is the author of four novels. The Music-Makers [House of Stratus 2001], The Nostradamus Prophecies [Atlantic 2009], The Mayan Codex [Corvus 2010], and The Third Antichrist [Corvus 2011]. Reading’s Antichrist Trilogy [TNP, TMC & TTA] has been published in 38 countries to date, with a combined sale of over 1,000,000 copies.

Mario Reading was the recipient of an Arts Council Writing Award for his novel-in-progress After Barbarossa.

He is also the author of eight non-fiction titles, including the Dictionary Of Cinema, the Movie Companion, the Watkins Dictionary Of Dreams, Nostradamus: The Complete Prophecies For The Future and Nostradamus: The Good News. His groundbreaking The Complete Prophecies Of Nostradamus was published in 2009 by Watkins Books, and 2010 saw the publication of an illustrated book, Nostradamus: The Top 100 Prophecies [available in 9 countries], and a revised edition of NTCPFTF. His most recent non-fiction book, Nostradamus & The Third Antichrist was published in March 2011. Reading’s non-fiction books have been published in 20 countries, and have sold more than 500,000 copies.

Reading also writes occasional magazine features, including, in February 2000, a controversial major Sunday Times Magazine exposé of the CIA, entitled An American Hero, and has also made a number of national and international appearances on radio and television, most notably in Discovery Channel’s 2006 documentary, Nostradamus: The Truth, and three further documentaries for Discovery Channel, History Channel, and National Geographic Channel. For four years he was the Chairman and chief coordinator of the Fonthill Writing Awards. He is also a member of Mensa and the ultra high IQ society, the ISPE [The International Society for Philosophical Inquiry].

Reviews

[Lorena Beshello · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is also one of the books I bought while waiting for hours in an airport and the cover drew my attention. It seemed very cool to read a book with this appealing cover. Surely I wasn't expecting this book to change my life or beliefs just because it looked dangerous and literally fiery :P

Jokes aside, really, I was very annoyed by the fact that the plot was so crappy and scattered and yet, so long. I thought anyone could sum up the entire plot in few very elemental chapters, or even pages. Moreover I couldn't see through the characters, nor events. The plot dragged me on and on into something that was unbelievably ridiculous in the end, but don't want to spoil that for the ones who didn't read this book.

Speaking about reading this, don't do it, spare your time. I am getting more and more disappointed with mystery/thriller book genre cause I am reluctant on what to expect.

[Suresh · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dan Brown's crown(?) as master(?) of thriller genre is safe. Even Steve berry who is a distant second to brown is safe. Why so? It is so, thanks to the abysmal shortage of authors intelligent enough to write thrillers in which characters don't display the intelligence of anything more than an algae.
This was the first book of the author that I have read. Spurred by the opening para [packs murder and incest (by a 12 year old boy to boot!) in a mere five lines] I picked it wondering how the author would maintain the tempo for the next 623 pages. Unsurprisingly enough the author didn't disappoint (or should it be 'disappoint'?). Funny thing is that this is the last book of a trilogy. This means that the author has managed to publish two books before inflicting this one(guess world is either filled with masochists or very forgiving people). I am too exhausted to tell anything about the plot(?) of the novel (but I don't think I'll miss anything by doing so). I keep reading such books to understand the template of a thriller novel. Guess I should stop reading and start writing. credits to Mario reading for having the patience to write such a huge novel -- not an easy thing to do so (my personal experience writing thesis and several technical reports has made me realize how easy it is to underestimate the effort required to write something). Given that you have this much patience Mr. Reading, I hope you'll do better next time. Also, given that you are a native speaker of English (I presume!), please pay attention to your grammatical constructs and the language usage in general.

Change of mind! Here goes the plot-line...
The Third Anti-Christ is born and doing well in Moldavia (you may find it on google maps and btw, is my spelling right?) and the 'second coming' is not far behind either. Add to this a secret organization (whose motto is that aiding chaos) that allies with the anti-christ and wants to eliminate the yet to be born second-coming. [This secret organization has in its rolls a bunch of squabbling siblings as their top assassins (they provide comic relief whenever they speak or whatever they do) who manage to goof-up even the simplest of tasks. This basically means that the second-coming is safe]. Now there's a scholar guy (hero actually) who possesses Nostradamus lost prophesies (guess the previous two books deals with this guy coming in possession of these passages). These 40 passages tell the GPS coords of the second-coming and the anti-christ; so you know which one to protect and which one to protect yourself (and the world) from. The story is about how the scholar guy keeps the second-coming (actually the heavily pregnant mother) safe from the comical assistance and the maniacal anti-christ. Would I have missed anything if I didn't add these lines?

P.S. Mr. Reading, please drop the mention of you being a member of the high IQ Mensa association; unfortunately this gives an added expectation that your story writing is going to reflect those extra IQ points. Perhaps for some valid reason you have made your characters look extremely stupid (which, given my low non-mensa IQ couldn't fathom). Else, I may have to come to a conclusion (may be rash) that Mensa is over rated. Another suggestion: Please don't thrust a sensational opening if you are incapable of maintaining the tempo; it's nothing more than a cheap trick to sell novels.

[Katikka · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'll review the whole series at one go.
It's good fun if you (like me) LOVE historical mysteries with a religious twist.
Main characters are likeable, but not very realistic (not very many heroes are, so this isn't really a big deal). The series also gives nice little info of gypsy culture and myths.

I like the story itself; lost prophecies of Nostradamus with the fear of third antichrist rising give a solid base to build on a thriller/treasure hunt.

I definitely recommend this series.

[The World of Books · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it 😍

[Louis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Readable and clearly well thought through to connect the dots through the trillergy but I was disappointed with the ends. It is an easy read with good characters but I would have liked some more - this book also became much more farfetched with assumptions I felt were unrealistic by some of the characters.
Glad I finished the trillergy nevertheless.

[David Hunter · Rating 3 out of 5]

An ok read

Unfortunately I only came across this book as a stand alone read and although I enjoyed it I feel That I lost a lot by not having read the first 2 books in the series. But having read book 3 I am unlikely to go back and read the first 2

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent finale to a thrilling series. The story switches between the main protagonists but is never confusing or over complicated. There are plenty of tense situations throughout the book which are well handled.

[Merral Wyer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Waffles on....and on...Not as good as I thought it would be...

[Karin Vestergaard · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will recommend the Trilology to everyone. Overall it is good

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting insights into Gypsy/Roma culture. Tying the Mayans and Nostradamus together is a big stretch for me, but nevertheless a good storyline.

[Buddhagan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The ending felt rushed and out of place. I was very disappointed to read through 3 books to get to this.

[Rach · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb as always with Mario Reading, the journey through this trilogy ID enthralling like no other, the 3rd and final offering simply serves to cement them all together xx

[Nari Wahlang · Rating 1 out of 5]

The only reason why I read this book was because my aunt and uncle wanted to know my thoughts on it. One of their friends had recommended it to them. Not being avid readers, they lent it to me. And when I gave it a read, my mouth hung open. It was bad. So bad. I have not read such a poorly constructed novel in such a long time.

The Third Antichrist by Mario Reading is a story that revolves around the predictions of Nostradamus. Five centuries ago, Nostradamus wrote of three Antichrists. Two, Napoleon and Hitler, have already bathed the world in blood. But it is the third that will bring the Apocalypse. Only Adam Sabir, the guardian of the lost prophecies of Nostradamus, knows what will happen when these destinies collide. He alone has decoded the identity of the Third Antichrist. He alone knows the one who can prevent the tyrant’s rise and stop hell from reigning on earth.

The Third Antichrist by Mario Reading is the final instalment of the Nostradamus series. I did not even know it was a series until I checked Goodreads. For a stretch, I was reading really great books. They were thought-provoking and left an impact on me. They were books that deserved multiple readings. This one, on the other hand, I wished I had not read it at all.

To begin with, I hated the opening paragraph. I never thought I would find a book that I would hate from the very beginning. Unfortunately, I did. I didn’t think things could get worse, but it did. The writing style chose to tell, not show, that it made the book into a very uninteresting story. The narrative was so disjointed it became incoherent. There was so many character point of view that I didn’t care about whose thoughts I was reading. It was all very confusing, and soon enough, they all blurred into one. Speaking of the characters, they were all very one dimensional, containing no depth to them. I did not connect with even one of them to the extent that I didn’t care whether they lived or died. They were that bad. Things just happened for the sake of happening. Some things were so ridiculous that I could not believe the editors left it in. I think Mario Reading got an inkling that people would be laughing at this book. So to make it intense, he added violence and abuse in it. But unlike books like A Little Life and Killing Stalking, where the effects of abuse are analysed through characters showcasing why it is so horrible. In this book, however, abuse and violence were there purely for the shock factor. That really annoyed me. And there was an absurd amount of incest. Mentioning it once was more than enough, but no, Mario Reading took every opportunity to remind the reader of the incestuous relationship, again for shock value.

When I first read the synopsis, I thought it would be a decent read. Unfortunately, it was anything but decent. The plot was so bad and scattered, not to mention very long. I read 600+ pages of nonsense. If Mario Reading had stuck to 300+ pages, the plot would have at least made sense. When I read the ending of the book, I was very glad that I never touched the two prequels of this series. I’m not going to recommend this book to anyone, so I might as well spoil the ending. Trust me when I say this book is not worth your time. The death of the so-called “antichrist” was very anticlimactic. He was not even killed by the so-called “hero” of the story. But by an assassin who only wants lots of money to live a lavish lifestyle. That was just the beginning of the ridiculousness. Adam Sabir, the protagonist, saves a woman who attempts suicide by drowning herself in the river. The two people have never met each other before. Let me repeat that, they have never met each other before. The woman doesn’t know who the “strange man is” but the two of them are so overwhelmed by love after he saves her that they have sex. I hope this sounds as absurd to you as it does to me. And the crème de la crème, of course, goes to when Adam Sabir realises that he might have interpreted Nostradamus’s predictions wrong. Imagine starting a three-part series, setting off events that lead to countless deaths, only for it to end when the protagonist realises he interpreted Nostradamus’s quatrains wrong. I wish I was making this up.

There is so much more that I want to say, but I think I’ve conveyed how I feel about the book fairly well. I’m sorry for turning this review into a rant. It’s been quite a while since I’ve read a book that is so bad that I don’t even have a single good thing to say about it. My rating is a solid 1 out of 5. Reading this book just made me wonder how it got published in the first place. I can’t wrap my head around it. Anyways, whatever you do, please stay away from this series for your own good.

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the third of a wonderful trilogy. I'm sorry it's finished.
Calque and Sabir are still on the trail of the remaining members of the Corpus Maleficus, who are funding the Third Antichrist. This third Antichrist (after Napoleon and Hitler) lives in Moldova, with his sister Antanasia and their abusive father. When Dracul grows up, he styles himself an almost religious leader and soon has many followers, who all have to pay a high tithe to the cause.
Eventually Abi de Bale of the Corpus Maleficus and his pursuers, Sabir, Calque and their gypsy friends, all arrive at where the Third Antichrist was living.
There's plenty of fighting between all sides, and also within each of the separate groups. Eventually, though, right wins out and the threat seems over.

[Cas Heirstrate · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dissapointing end to the series

[Yordanka · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5*

[Vera VB · Rating 3 out of 5]

De voorspellingen van Nostradamus worden veel gebruikt in thrillers. Ook hier staat een van zijn voorspellingen centraal, namelijk de geboorte van de derde antichrist. De vorige twee waren Napoleon en Hitler. Op gebied van aantal slachteroffers blijkt dat de tweede de vorige in tienvoud overtrof. Als dit ook voor de derde geldig is, staat de wereld een ware apocalyps te wachten.
In Moldavië wordt een jongen geboren in een gezin dat door alcohol, geweld en seks wordt beheerst. Hij neemt al snel de gewoonten van zijn vader over. Nadat hij een in isolement levende monnik heeft vermoord, neemt hij dienst plaats in en roept zichzelf uit tot de nieuwe Christus. Hij krijgt al snel veel volgelingen die met de nodige dwang in het gelid lopen. Zijn zus helpt hem, maar dient toch vooral als zijn persoonlijke lustobject, voor de seks. Hij wil president worden en heeft plannen met enkele kernkoppen.
De man wordt benaderd door een groepering die zich inzet voor het creëren van chaos. Ze bieden hem veel geld aan om enkele mensen te vermoorden. Een ervan is een zigeunerin die de nieuwe antichrist zal baren.
Met die zigeuners is er heel wat aan de hand en er vallen echt wel veel doden, niemand is te vertrouwen en al zeker niet een man Adam genaamd die zowat zijn hele familie uitmoord.
Ik vond het een ingewikkeld boek.

[Cas · Rating 2 out of 5]

This novel felt tired from the second chapter. The characters are too weird to be even remotely convincing, even in a book like this where you expect incredibility, and there are too many of them. Ok the baddies are clearly baddies and the goodies are obviously saintly. Others are decipherable only by their unfortunate physical characteristics (ugly,hairy,disabled). Apart from gender, the rest are not distinguishable and seem to be much the same person. The storylines are unnecessarily entangled by a writer who seems to rely on vagueness and incomplete explanations as an alternative to decent plotting. This is is the third in the series so perhaps Mr Reading was simply bored with the whole thing. It certainly reads that way.

[Cara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having read and enjoyed the previous 2 books in this series, I was looking forward to the conclusion. I was a bit disappointed with this one though. Yes, it continued on from where the last one left off, and yes it was action-packed from page 1, but - and it's a big but - there was no spark. The book felt very flat and lifeless, almost as if the author had got bored of the series and was rushing through to the finale. The main characters, Sabin and Caque, who were vibrant and complex in the very first book were almost reduced to minor players. Overall, it felt like Mario Reading ran out of steam.

[Jeroen van Essen · Rating 2 out of 5]

A book on which I started hoping for those one-in-a-million books that I want to read again and again. Turned out to be a book that is far from a page-turner. It has a lot of storylines, which I liked, but those storylines were so long stretched and many pages of them were uninteresting. This combined made the book itself a drag to get through and did not make me look forward to continue reading it.

[Martin Eyles · Rating 1 out of 5]

The story just seemed to drag on & on. Took a long time to get going & wasn't till last 5/6 chapters that the story got interesting. The author goes into too much detail than necessary for parts of the story & characters. Didn't enjoy this book & felt like giving up but decided to see it through. I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Third in the trilogy took me awhile to get into it. Felt I could have skipped large sections and had to read the last chapter twice to actually "get" what was going on. But overall I would reccomend this set of books to anyone.

[Wim · Rating 2 out of 5]

Impulse buy, didn't know it was the last book of The Nostradamus-trilogy. This made it a little difficult to bond with the characters. Maybe I would have found it beter if I had read the previous books.

[Rachel Nowakowski · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this even though I read it out of sync. What a nice apocalyptic ending - a bit more optimistic than one might expect with such a title. Still quite gory and hard to read in places. But well written.

[Annette Gisby · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd started reading this book years ago and found it very confusing. I've since discovered it was the 3rd book in a trilogy and now that I've read the first two as well, it makes a lot more sense!

It felt less mystical than the first two, but still a good story.

[Kristie Scarle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bought this in the Kindle sale. It said it was an 'introduction to series of books' but it didn't say it was number 3 of 3!

[Ritesh Bhangale · Rating 4 out of 5]

Expected a better ending

[Afsheen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I worthy rhird book!

[Just_me · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quiet an easy read, hadn't read the other books in series so took a while to get into characters though.

[Lakshmi Mahanra · Rating 1 out of 5]

toooooo draggy. toooooo much details. the book put me off and i'm not going to continue reading it.