The Rapture: In The Twinkling Of An Eye (2007) - Plot & Excerpts
The third installment in the Before They Were Left Behind series is half Glorious Appearing and half Left Behind.The actual rapture doesn't occur until halfway into the book, the time up to then is spent setting up the situations in which people find themselves when the Rapture occurs, by and large information we didn't get (at least as explicitly) in Left Behind. Once the Rapture occurs the action splits between those who are raptured and their experiences in Heaven (the same kind of story as those present at Christ's second coming in Glorious Appearing) and the reactions of those left behind, although mostly differnt perspectives than those given in Left Behind.While I still enjoyed Glorious Appearing. because it was the last book in the series, there wasn't that driving force to finish the book immediately so I could be ready for the next one. There was no next one. Jesus had come back to Earth. After his 1,000 year reign on Earth, there's nothing but eternity. So I had similar problems with reading the story of the raptured saints. While it was cool to read about Heaven and meeting all the other saints, it wasn't as gripping as the fight for survival facing those left behind.On the other hand, I absolutely loved getting to see more about what happened to people who played smaller or later roles in the Left Behind series when the Rapture occured, as well as the fates of random people, reminding us that this event effects the whole world.I realized that I totally forgot to mention Carpathia in The Regime, but I will say that it's very illuminating (and creepy) to see his initial reaction to the Rapture. Really, though, of the three prequels, he plays the smallest role by far in this one. If the The Rising was about Nicolae and the The Regime was about The Steele's and Buck , then The Rapture is essentially about humanity.
So far I think there are too many characters in the book. Too much characters to predict by starting in the middle of this season. The author clearly has his mind set on something else besides on how to survive a rapture, more like a soap opera. Then he brings religion into these books which make it a little personal and agitated at some points. Out of all the apocalypse books I've read this is the worst. It doesn't really bring in Christians because they really don't enjoy reading end of the world books. :). At the same time it brings in the people who actually think the world is going to end, or just adventurous readers, and they end up getting quotes and prayers from the bible. This author seems like he has the completely wrong categories going on in one book. Those are the facts. For my opinion, the whole series fails at being anything near Christianity. I could not stand or watch anybody finish all of his books, because of what i said before its like a little soap opera. everybody knows everybody some way, and mostly all of them talk about god. although in reality I have to say that The author really knows how to write an action scene. Too bad all the action scenes are all like 4 pages long. :(
What do You think about The Rapture: In The Twinkling Of An Eye (2007)?
Did I miss something? When did being a Christian Fiction book exempt a book from having a plot? The authors start a 'world domination' type of thread, then forgot about it; they introduced characters that were completely forgotten about - and had absolutely no relevance to the limited story arc that did exist; then about halfway through, the authors switched completely away from any sort of story and just started recounting biographies of famous biblical characters.What a waste of time. Mark this as my first and last christian fiction book.
—Bridgit
This was definitely the worst of the trilogy, which says a lot because the first two weren't great. Along with the multiple spelling/grammatical errors, the story line was seriously lacking. The actual rapture happens about halfway through the book, and from that point on, real time happenings in the world post-rapture are interspersed with the experiences of those who were raptured (mostly Irene and Raymie). I hate to say it, but these scenes were ridiculously corny. So much time was spent talking about all these heroes of the faith that Irene got to meet in heaven and their testimonies, that I felt like I was reading some sort of non-fiction martyrs book or something. I did enjoy the "real world" story lines, but the heaven vignettes just turned me off the whole book. This was one of those situations where the authors probably had a quota of books they needed to fill with their publisher so they were grasping at straws to come up with a new book.
—Pamela Hubbard
This was the last book in the Left Behind Series for me to read. This book is focused on the Rapture occuring and the events surrounding it, for both those taken to heaven and those left behind. It closely follows Irene and Raymie as they enter the kingdom of Heaven and the events that transpire there: the appearance of Jesus; being judged for your works on earth; receiving your heavenly crowns. They intersperse these chapters with stories of others and their good works for Christ. Many of these stories were about people I had heard of, many were not but I suspect that they were based on real life heros. The book also flashes back to those left behind. Many of the main characters, Raymond, Chloe, Smitty, know right away what happened and realize that they were left behind. Others, like Buck, have not come to that conclusion yet but seem to be on that track. Lastly, we hear more about Nicholae and his rise to power in Romania. Overall it was a good book, but I think that parts were dragged out a little too long. It was almost if they committed to writing this book and then realized that they couldn't go beyond the first book in the series and that left little time to cover in the book
—Sarah Schoesler
