Jeff's Lunchbreak

Tribulation Force is the second book in the hugely successful Christian End Times series, Left Behind, written by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. Many of my impressions of Tribulation Force are the same as my impressions of the first book, Left Behind, so you can read my previous entries on that book, Some Early Thoughts on Left Behind and More Thoughts on Left Behind After Finishing the Book, along with the brief review from my 2011 book wrap-up.

Let me start off this review by saying that I was entertained by this book, enough that I'll probably continue reading the series (though not straight through without breaks for other books). And let me also preface this review by admitting that when I first saw the Left Behind movie while I was still a Christian, it seemed reasonably plausible, if not particularly likely to occur any time soon. It wasn't until I abandoned Christianity, read the actual book, and discovered Slacktivist's Left Behind reviews that I realized just how implausible the story is (thanks for making me feel so gullible, Slacktivist).

Even if you believe in Christianity, and even if it's one of the varieties that believes in the Rapture and subsequent apocalypse, the events as depicted in these books are wildly implausible (note that the Slacktivist himself is an evangelical Christian). The first book, Left Behind, begins with the Rapture - every True Christian being taken to heaven, along with every single child younger than their early teens, no matter who their parents. The opening chapters of the first book described all the chaos that ensued from that event - cars crashing head on into other cars after the drivers miraculously vanished, airports littered with wrecked airliners that brave passengers had tried their best to land after losing the flight crew, expecting parents grieving the loss of their soon to be born children. But all of the mayhem this supposedly caused is practically non-existent in later chapters of the first book and the entirety of the second book. Other than a few passing references to increased crime or missing children, the characters in Tribulation Force are living in a world remarkably similar to the existing world.

And as if the Rapture weren't strange enough, everybody still alive got to witness Israel divinely protected from an all-out Russian attack, and then the fire-breathing prophets in Tribulation Force that can't be killed by thugs or armies. But despite these obviously miraculous events, people by and large continue to dismiss the (apparently new) Christians who believe in the End Times as nothing more than religious fanatics. Unless God were intentionally hardening everyone's hearts, this is not the reaction that would happen in reality. Americans in particular are already prone to religious explanations, and practically everyone knows something about the Rapture and the second coming of Christ. Can you really imagine the events from this series occuring without everyone jumping to the conclusion that people like La Haye and Jenkins had been right all along. I think this is a reflection of how the authors see the world now - that their particular brand of Christianity must be so obvious that there can't be any good reason for non-believers to actually not believe.

In Slacktivist's reviews, he'll occasionally write alternate versions of passages, illustrating how the events could have been depicted in the hands of different authors, and it makes you realize just how much better these books could have been. Two of my favorites of these alternate passages are in his entries, TF: Reaching for the cookie sack and T.F.: A new car.

The first of those pages linked to above dealt with a small scene where Buck and Chloe bought a cookie at the airport, from a stereotypical "bored teenager wait[ing] for their order." Rather than simply go with the stereotype, especially in a post-Rapture world where everyone's lives must have been turned upside down, Slacktivist imagined a back story for the teenager, and it was far more interesting and touching than anything LaHaye and Jenkins have come up with so far.

The second of the pages linked to above criticized the following sentence from the book, "Buck Williams had spent the day buying a car -- something he hadn't needed in Manhattan -- and hunting for an apartment." In the book, that's the extent of the description of Buck buying the car. There was no mention of where he went, how many dealerships he had to go to, how much he spent, how the dealer himself was dealing with the recent Rapture. Heck, there was absolutely no mention of what type of car Buck bought, whether it was a compact import, an exotic sports car, or a gas guzzling all American SUV. And the few times later in the book when Buck mentioned to other characters that he'd bought a car, they didn't respond realistically. Just imagine that one of your friends came up to you and said, "I just bought a new car.' What would your first reaction be? I would guess it would be something along the lines of, "Oh really, what kind?" But none of the characters ever asked Buck what type of new car he just bought, so that by the end of the book, the only thing we know about Buck's car is that it's "a car". Now, that may not be the most pertinent detail in the series, but a car can tell you a lot about a person's personality, especially in books and movies when certain types of cars are stereotypically given to certain characters (e.g Dinner for Schmucks, Porsches For Jerks - I wonder if Buck bought a 911). And this is really just symptomatic of the lack of detail (and unrealistic dialogue) throughout the whole series thus far.

I will post a sort of warning, however, if you intend to read this book and Slacktivist's reviews. Read the book first. While Slacktivist's entries are entertaining and often spot on, the constant negative comments against the book will bias you against it from the get go, and make it harder to suspend your disbelief to enjoy the books. And Slacktivist sometimes goes a bit too far, in my opinion, interpreting the book especially harshly when a more charitable interpretation might be more fitting.

Perhaps the most damning aspect of these books if you want to read them for enjoyment is the fact that the two main characters aren't particular likeable. The books are told from the viewpoints of Buck Williams and Rayford Steele, but even reading the story through their eyes and reading their thoughts, they come off as arrogant, inconsiderate jerks. In the first book, I'd chalked it up to them not having been True Christians, and expecting their personalities to change for the better once they converted. But in Tribulation Force, they're born again Christians for the entire book, and they're still jerks. I know heroes aren't supposed to be Mary Sues/Gary Stus. They need to have some flaws to make them believable, but the author needs to be careful to not make the flaws so numerous that the hero is no longer a 'hero'. Like I wrote previously, you don't so much root for the main characters in this book, as just read to see what's going to happen.

There's really only a handful of symphathetic characters - Chloe Steele (Rayford's college age daughter who becomes the love interest for 30 something Buck), Hattie Durham (the flight attendant that Rayford had been leading on before the Rapture), and Chaim Rosenzweig (a chemist who developed a practically magical formula making the deserts of Israel into fertile farmland). Hattie and Chaim were duped into becoming part of the inner circle of the Anti-Christ, before they had a chance to receive divine protection by becoming born again Christians like the book's 'heroes'. Yet throughout the two books so far, the 'heroes' have done nothing to attempt to save their friends. Chloes started off the series as a college girl, the group's token skeptic. But in Tribulation Force, she's slowly morphing into a stereotypical silly girl. In one of the most painful aspects of the book to read, the authors commit the standard tropes of Not What It Looks Like and the Idiot Ball, when Chloe sees a secretary for Buck's company drop by his apartment to drop off some of his things (again with the arrogant heroes - who still makes secretaries run personal errands?). Chloe talks to the woman, and the woman talks about her fiance in just such a way that Chloe can misunderstand it to think that the woman is talking of Buck. But rather than ask Buck a simple question to clear up what's going on, the author's drag on this misunderstanding for nearly half the book, along with a similarly painful episode involving mysterious flowers from a secret admirer.

While reading the book, I used my iPhone to snap pictures of particularly cringe worthy scenes throughout the book. I'd intended to use those photos to highlight those scenes in a detailed review of the book, but there are so many (I took nearly 60 photos) that it would make this review unnecessarily long. Perhaps one day I'll post the detailed review including critiques of all those passages, but I doubt I'd add much more than what Slacktivist has already done. Instead, I'll just quote one passage, since it actually ties in with the book of the Bible I'm reading right now for my Friday Bible Blogging series, the book of Job. This is from towards the end of the book, after Rayford re-marries (in a character thrown into the plot after an "Eighteen months later" jump).

Despite their concern for Bruce, Rayford felt a little more whole. He had a four-person family again, albeit a new wife and a new son.

Because family members can be so easily replaced. I still feel the loss of my grandparents, and it's been well over a decade since I lost the last of them. And it doesn't matter how many new people I've met since their deaths. They were individual people who cannot be replaced. The above passage is almost dehumanizing, thinking of a wife as just a position to be filled.

Since my impressions of Tribulation Force are so similar to those I had for Left Behind, I'll end this review by adapting what I'd already written in my brief review of Left Behind. Tribulation Force wasn't great, but it wasn't horrible, either. The series so far isn't, as Slacktivist said, "The Worst Books Ever Written." At the very least, it gives you some insight into the mindset of premillenial dispensationalists. If you can get past the corny dialog, unlikeable heroes, and lack of detail, and then suspend your disbelief about the implausible scenarios, you can enjoy the books. Like I wrote above, I liked Tribulation Force well enough that I'll probably try to finish out the series.