An Author-Requested Review
Publisher: Arete Publishing
Copyright: 2010
ISBN-10: 148394963X
ISBN-13: 978-1483949635
Format: ebook
Genre: Young Adult Dystopian
Part of Series: Part I of Rapture Trilogy
Rating: 2 1/2 out of 5
Phillip W. Simpson’s young adult novel, Rapture Trilogy, paints a dystopian
world after the Biblical Rapture has occurred and the believers have been taken
to heaven. Written in third-person, limited point-of-view we follow the
teenaged protagonist, Sam, through a demon-infested landscape where the sun is
blotted out, the moon is red as blood and ash continually falls from the sky,
contaminating exposed water and food. Sam’s goal is to reach Los Angeles from
his home in Jacob’s Ladder, Utah. Along the way he battles demon’s, trying to
help the unbelievers left behind and fights beside the survivors holed up in
caves and old businesses that remain standing after the earthquakes. But Sam is
up to the challenge because he’s half-demon, half-human so has superior
strength and speed coupled with life-long training in martial arts using the
katana (long blade) & wakizashi (short blade). Of course, he has horns,
which makes gaining survivors’ trust more difficult. Along the way, Sam befriends
Joshua, who agrees to travel with him to Los Angeles, and together they save a
girl named Grace from a group of roughen survivors. This unlikely trio makes
their way across the brutal, post-Rapture landscape.
Simpson uses alternating chapters to give Sam’s
background, which works well in telling us about Hikari and his daughter, Aimi
who Sam loves, but slows the action a bit. His descriptions of both the setting
and the fight scenes are engaging, but his characters lack depth. For instance,
Sam is raised by Hikari, his sensei or teacher/foster-father who is, by all
accounts in the novel, perfect. We learn through the flashbacks that Hikari takes
Sam in as an infant from a Christian mother who was seduced by a demon. Hikari
devotes his life to Sam’s martial arts training and Biblical education. Though
Hikari was once a teacher, we have no idea how he supports Sam and Aimi. He
seems to always be at home, that is when he’s not at church. How he provides
for his family is a complete mystery. Aimi is also portrayed to perfection.
She’s an obedient daughter who happily takes on the responsibility of cooking
and cleaning for two men. On top of her household chores, Hikari trains Aimi in
the martial arts almost as rigorously as he trains Sam, and all the while she
maintains academic excellence and superior cheerleading skills. Excelling at
everything she does is a bit unrealistic. No wonder Sam loves her, she is
perfection incarnate. Neither Aimi nor Sam displays the rebellious nature that
occurs in 98% of American teenagers. As an ex-high school teacher, I found that
lack a little disturbing. Teenaged rebellion is part of growing up and
developing self-identity.
While Phillip W. Simpson’s Rapture Trilogy provides
us with a good escapism story, it lacks the depth and breadth of realism to
make it worth a second read. Though the main character is the picture of social
isolation, he lacks the rebellion, “to liberate himself
or herself from childhood dependency on parental approval for always being the
"good child." (Carl Pickard, PhD., “Surviving (Your Child’s)
Adolescence”, Psychology Today December
6, 2009). Neither does Aimi, the quintessential “good child”. I doubt whether
the teen population which Simpson’s targets will identify with either
character.