Tribulation Force: the Continuing Drama of Those Left Behind

DNF at 45%

The general plot re: beginning of the End of Days was fine. If the author had stayed with that, I could probably overlook other narrative difficulties. Probably.

But the romance story line killed this series for me. A thirty-year-old globe-trotting journalist who’s still a virgin? Sure, it’s possible. But it was introduced in such a way that it felt contrived - engineered by the author to make the character more sparkly clean and pure.

And his love interest. A spoiled brat, ten years his junior, who plays all kinds of “read my mind and guess why I’m mad” games; but who became highly offended when her childish behavior is pointed out. By the time they reconciled, I was ready to bitch-slap her to New Babylon and back. show more

Maybe I’ll try the series again, someday. But not this week. show less

Ok, I tried, I can't do it.

I was going to do a quick reread of all these Left Behind books over the next few weeks but the gripping story line (which I don't necessarily dispute, to be clear) is not enough to force me to suffer through the horrendous writing style. I was doing ok (to put it graciously) until the 18 month jump ahead in the last quarter of the book. Waaaaay to much info, too fast. Rayford's new wife comes out of nowhere with very little back story (if I remember right, from 20 years ago, this explains itself a bit...several books later) and that's just one of the MANY things to hit the reader at once as the chapters are annoyingly rushed up at the end.

I was also REEEEally irritated with Chloe's overdramatic immature show more behavior. I have a hard time believing a 31 year old professional guy would have put up with all that but... Maybe the authors have super whiny wives and this is normal female behavior in their eyes.

The "fun" part of these books is reading about all the "high tech" technology that the authors imagined---stuff that has now been outdated a good 8 or 10 years. Chloe left college to come home after the Rapture, yet she needs "Buck the man" to set up her E-mail (capital "e" and hyphen included). The super high tech description of the inside of the futuristic plane: "every seat had its own phone, modem jack, VCR, and TV." The Presidential living quarters had "technology allowing the plane to communicate with anyone anywhere in the world." Wowie!

The world is so different now... Like when the characters are annoyed that they have to find something to do since they've arrived at the airport an hour before their flight takes off. Now we arrive 90 minutes early, at least...and have lots to do.

I may still finish these up over the course of the year, but for now I need a break. show less

This book is a setup book, an in-between transition book. There are so many details that you have to pay attention to that you don't know are important. It is a little deceiving in that way. Memorize everything.

Much more realism and true-to-life relationship-building could have been written into Tribulation Force. What threw me off in the book was Rayford's marriage to Amanda. As I mentioned above about realism and true-to-life relationship-building, there wasn't any of that between Amanda and Rayford. There was a little conversation and we were told that the relationship progressed. It just seemed awkward.

There isn't much energy between people except when it comes to faith. Sometimes there is anger. Of course, there's anger. There is show more always anger. But the only passion for writing comes when they write of their faith.

There is so much more we bring to Christ's work that our hope of salvation; our reliance on God that our atoms will cling together. (I like it when the Laws of Science work.)

We bring the talents God gave us. We can fly jets to take you across the world. We can create music that will make you dance, or shout, or cry. We can study science and build wonderful things that will change the world. We can brew a good cup of coffee.

Sermon over. I liked the book, but it could have been better. Remember, a ton of things happens in this book that gets referred to again. show less

I enjoyed this one as much as i did the first one, i think. These are making me want to learn more about what's actually going to happen.

They can occasionally be cheesy, but overall, i think the characters are well developed. The Antichrist is still creepy. I'm kind of afraid he'll lose that once he drops the mask, but we'll see.

I like how when a big event is coming up, the sections that the chapter is divided up into (switching between characters) are smaller. To me, it brings to mind a TV show or movie where images flash on the screen that carry important information and they're slowly brought together to reveal the conclusion that the audience has been waiting for. I don't know if that makes sense in writing. Haha. To me, it slows show more things down and increases the suspense, but not in an annoying way.

It annoyed me that they kept saying that the president gave Air Force One to the Antichrist. It isn't Air Force One unless the president of the United States is on it. This particular plane was built to be used as Air Force One, but i don't think the president ever flew in it, so it was never actually Air Force One. I know they probably just called it that so that readers wouldn't miss that it was the US president's plane, but still...

I was "bemused" by a sentence saying that a couple of guys had "bemused, knowing looks". How does one look bemused and knowing at the same time? I don't understand. If you can see it, please let me know.

*Review written on May 16, 2014.* show less

The new believers left behind after the rapture leran to trust each other, as they slowly realise what they're up against. Very exciting, quite believable, even if a bit over-fast action at times.

I enjoyed the story as fiction. I laughed, cried, fumed, and shouted--all positive things--but I want to temper that strongly by saying that I wouldn't suggest it as theological or eschatological material, as some have. I'm not really concerned with the order and how's of end-time events and believe we waste too much time trying to figure it out. As Jesus said: "No one knows the times or the seasons, but my heavenly Father." Do worry about it. Live and hope. You don't need to have it all marked out on a calendar.If someone were to ask me what fictional literature I would suggest, this series wouldn't occur to me at all, and I wouldn't suggest it if it did. But, seeing as I have read it (except the last one and the prequels), I felt like show more I ought to review it. For story, I would give it three stars, maybe four. But my reservations pull that rating down to two. show less

This book focuses on the main character(s) Buck, who is a news reporter and a pastor of a church who was "left behind." They get together to try to figure out where all the missing have gone. As more and more events occur, it becomes obvious to the pastor what has occurred; so his small band of left behind followers get seriously into the study of Revelation. The anti-Christ, Nicolae, also becomes prominent. My favorite part of this book was the 2 "figures" at the wailing wall who were there for 1,260 days prophesying and when anybody approached their words became fire and would be "attackers" could not come close. They were unable to be killed. Revelation specifically mentions these 2 prophets (thought not by name). This book moved a show more little slower than book 1, hence 3.5 stars. 487 pages show less