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The Rupture
King, George C.
332 pages, Paperback
First published December 18, 2009
609 people want to read
About the author
George C. King
8 books29 followers I was a Navy brat, attending 15 different schools before going to college. Two of those schools were in the Panama Canal Zone, where I lived from 1955 to 1957. My stay there provided the source material for my first novel, THE YOUNG BALBOAS, a coming-of-age epic that unfolds in the lush Panamanian jungle.
I taught English literature for thirty-two years in Maryland, where I was cited for producing successful scores on the National Advanced Placement Test in English at twice the rate of teachers in other schools. I was also nominated for Teacher of the Year. Outside the classroom, I've been a nationally ranked tennis player, and I fish in bass tournaments in Maine, where my wife and I own a log cabin on the shores of Lake Cobbosseecontee.
Since retiring to Sarasota, Florida, in 2000, I've published five additional novels: SIXTY IN SARASOTA, SEXY IN SARASOTA, SENILE IN SARASOTA,THE RUPTURE, and THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. The three Sarasota novels are comedy/mysteries set on the fabulous Sun Coast of Florida. THE RUPTURE, a send-up of the rapture, might be described as George Carlin meets Richard Dawkins. An alien travels to Earth from Alpha Centauri to forestall a religious war threatening to engulf the planet and winds up leading a revolt against religion itself. His two secret weapons are stand-up comedy and a fleet of enormous UFOs. My latest novel, THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY, is a paranormal mystery and legal thriller set in Maryland and Maine.
I taught English literature for thirty-two years in Maryland, where I was cited for producing successful scores on the National Advanced Placement Test in English at twice the rate of teachers in other schools. I was also nominated for Teacher of the Year. Outside the classroom, I've been a nationally ranked tennis player, and I fish in bass tournaments in Maine, where my wife and I own a log cabin on the shores of Lake Cobbosseecontee.
Since retiring to Sarasota, Florida, in 2000, I've published five additional novels: SIXTY IN SARASOTA, SEXY IN SARASOTA, SENILE IN SARASOTA,THE RUPTURE, and THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. The three Sarasota novels are comedy/mysteries set on the fabulous Sun Coast of Florida. THE RUPTURE, a send-up of the rapture, might be described as George Carlin meets Richard Dawkins. An alien travels to Earth from Alpha Centauri to forestall a religious war threatening to engulf the planet and winds up leading a revolt against religion itself. His two secret weapons are stand-up comedy and a fleet of enormous UFOs. My latest novel, THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY, is a paranormal mystery and legal thriller set in Maryland and Maine.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
November 13, 2012
“How come you don’t have a big, bald head and green skin?” he said finally.
“That would’ve been the Dogdribians on the fourth planet from Sirius. My skin is actually blue, but I’ve dyed it so I can fit in here.”
I could see his eyebrows shoot up as he absorbed these morsels of information.
“Okay, let me see if I’ve got the story straight. You’re an extraterrestrial who’s come to answer my prayers. And what would those be?” he said, testing me.
“You want me to save your world,” I replied without hesitation.
“And that thing I saw in the sky, so colossal, with all those levels…I suppose that was your mother ship.”
Although the language was new to my ears, I thought I detected a touch of sarcasm.
“No, it was my ship, not my mother’s. She doesn’t have her own ship, but my father does.”
“An alien with a sense of humor,” he muttered.
A sense of humor indeed, plus blue skin, lavender eyes, twelve fingers, twelve toes, and a Canadian accent when he speaks English. Revillug, aka Jason Christopher, enters an American Idol style competition, for stand-up comedy, though, not singing. His monologues are howlingly funny and devastatingly critical of Christianity, specifically Original Sin, the Virgin Birth, and Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection. Jason is from a race on a planet near Alpha Centauri, who police the universe to prevent galactic catastrophes. It turns out that religion is always the culprit on other planets, and Jason’s people usually have to destroy the inhabitants because of their stubborn refusal to think rationally. When Jason is sent to Earth, he hopes things will turn out differently. It would be giving away the story to tell you what happens, but the final chapter is shocking and the epilogue should be read to the very last word!
“That would’ve been the Dogdribians on the fourth planet from Sirius. My skin is actually blue, but I’ve dyed it so I can fit in here.”
I could see his eyebrows shoot up as he absorbed these morsels of information.
“Okay, let me see if I’ve got the story straight. You’re an extraterrestrial who’s come to answer my prayers. And what would those be?” he said, testing me.
“You want me to save your world,” I replied without hesitation.
“And that thing I saw in the sky, so colossal, with all those levels…I suppose that was your mother ship.”
Although the language was new to my ears, I thought I detected a touch of sarcasm.
“No, it was my ship, not my mother’s. She doesn’t have her own ship, but my father does.”
“An alien with a sense of humor,” he muttered.
A sense of humor indeed, plus blue skin, lavender eyes, twelve fingers, twelve toes, and a Canadian accent when he speaks English. Revillug, aka Jason Christopher, enters an American Idol style competition, for stand-up comedy, though, not singing. His monologues are howlingly funny and devastatingly critical of Christianity, specifically Original Sin, the Virgin Birth, and Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection. Jason is from a race on a planet near Alpha Centauri, who police the universe to prevent galactic catastrophes. It turns out that religion is always the culprit on other planets, and Jason’s people usually have to destroy the inhabitants because of their stubborn refusal to think rationally. When Jason is sent to Earth, he hopes things will turn out differently. It would be giving away the story to tell you what happens, but the final chapter is shocking and the epilogue should be read to the very last word!
April 15, 2010
People with open minds and a well-developped sense of humor should truly have a great time reading this book. There is never a dull moment. In fact there are several hilarious moments! But the book provides food for thought as well and could provoke curiosity among certain readers to further study the origins of religions and religious beliefs. Not a book for devout Christians, I'm afraid.
December 29, 2011
fucking brilliant.
July 5, 2011
Well Done. These are preliminary thoughts having just finished the book. Endeavoring to balance my five star enthusiasm for smacking the end times, jihad and the rest of it into another dimension well away from mine with an level appraisal of the book itself along side the other heavy hitters of speculative fiction. I think the author has at least earned a shot at the big leagues here. I can say that it delivers on the promotional description, all the details line up by the time it is done, there are no loose ends whatever and that cannot be said of some highly regarded works of more celebrated authors, and there is a nice irony to the finish. It does not disappoint.
The only big stretch in the SF premise is that anything we can do to ourselves here at the moment could possibly have effects beyond the planet let alone the solar system sufficient to justify extra-terrestrial intervention as necessary to a distant planet's survival in another star system. The effects on the planet, mainly due to radiation, would be terrible but the overall impact otherwise probably falls well short of a low end super volcano eruption, something that has not happened in recorded history but apparently did come close to making us extinct about 75,000 years ago. As bad as MAD (mutually assured destruction) is, we probably overestimate our power, not unlike the way we overestimate our cosmic importance in the world's religions.
My local library has apparently declined my request to get it by pocket veto (or is taking an unusually long time to act, as they have obtained other books I requested quite rapidly). This library is well balanced and keeps permanent copies of many books on both sides of political and religion topics covered in this book (Dennett, Dawkins,Harris and even Hitchens all present and accounted for). If censorship, cultural bias, politics or even money is not the explanation, I wonder if there is a bias against self-published books involved.
The only big stretch in the SF premise is that anything we can do to ourselves here at the moment could possibly have effects beyond the planet let alone the solar system sufficient to justify extra-terrestrial intervention as necessary to a distant planet's survival in another star system. The effects on the planet, mainly due to radiation, would be terrible but the overall impact otherwise probably falls well short of a low end super volcano eruption, something that has not happened in recorded history but apparently did come close to making us extinct about 75,000 years ago. As bad as MAD (mutually assured destruction) is, we probably overestimate our power, not unlike the way we overestimate our cosmic importance in the world's religions.
My local library has apparently declined my request to get it by pocket veto (or is taking an unusually long time to act, as they have obtained other books I requested quite rapidly). This library is well balanced and keeps permanent copies of many books on both sides of political and religion topics covered in this book (Dennett, Dawkins,Harris and even Hitchens all present and accounted for). If censorship, cultural bias, politics or even money is not the explanation, I wonder if there is a bias against self-published books involved.
May 21, 2015
This was the Kindle edition. Only one noticeable stray character.
[Sighs] Comedy is hard. A lot of it is in the timing. Writing and performing a stand-up routine takes cojones; writing about a stand-up routine is just about pointless. George Carlin got away with hosing religion because he established himself over years as an irreverent funnyman. I'd laugh at about anything he said. His Football vs. Baseball routine seems to be on every time I fly Delta and it's funny every time I hear it (and I see other passengers furtively putting on headphones and dialing around trying to find out what I'm carrying on about).
I'm an atheist. I love Bart Ehrman, Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett, and Christopher Hitchens. Okay, Hitchens appalls me but I respect the intellect. I won't say this book is terrible. It has a lot going for it. It's touching and funny in places. It's got suspense and a punchline. I just didn't find the stand-up funny. And I have friends who throw "Life of Brian" parties and carry crosses around the neighborhood ... on Easter Weekend ... in the Bible Belt. It's not something I'd do myself ... because I don't think torture is funny.
I don't read a lot of science fiction, but even for me the magical alien with the supernormal (for earth) mental powers and fancy gadgetry is a squeezed out trope. Even one of my favorite parts, Jason enduring his first ride in an automobile, reminds me of the yellow-light-means-go-real-fast wheeze in "Starman." Jason was funnier when he was more vulnerable; he was a better character when he was more complex. As an all-powerful alien who could vaporize all life on a given planet, he was just plain scary, and all the tangoing-with-a-lightweight-cross in the world doesn't relieve that. In fact, it just points up the horror of it.
And is there such a thing as brainwashing for a good reason?
Okay, now I'll go read the other reviews and see what it was I didn't "get."
[Sighs] Comedy is hard. A lot of it is in the timing. Writing and performing a stand-up routine takes cojones; writing about a stand-up routine is just about pointless. George Carlin got away with hosing religion because he established himself over years as an irreverent funnyman. I'd laugh at about anything he said. His Football vs. Baseball routine seems to be on every time I fly Delta and it's funny every time I hear it (and I see other passengers furtively putting on headphones and dialing around trying to find out what I'm carrying on about).
I'm an atheist. I love Bart Ehrman, Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett, and Christopher Hitchens. Okay, Hitchens appalls me but I respect the intellect. I won't say this book is terrible. It has a lot going for it. It's touching and funny in places. It's got suspense and a punchline. I just didn't find the stand-up funny. And I have friends who throw "Life of Brian" parties and carry crosses around the neighborhood ... on Easter Weekend ... in the Bible Belt. It's not something I'd do myself ... because I don't think torture is funny.
I don't read a lot of science fiction, but even for me the magical alien with the supernormal (for earth) mental powers and fancy gadgetry is a squeezed out trope. Even one of my favorite parts, Jason enduring his first ride in an automobile, reminds me of the yellow-light-means-go-real-fast wheeze in "Starman." Jason was funnier when he was more vulnerable; he was a better character when he was more complex. As an all-powerful alien who could vaporize all life on a given planet, he was just plain scary, and all the tangoing-with-a-lightweight-cross in the world doesn't relieve that. In fact, it just points up the horror of it.
And is there such a thing as brainwashing for a good reason?
Okay, now I'll go read the other reviews and see what it was I didn't "get."
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 29, 2011
The plot of THE RUPTURE, a brilliant new satire by George C. King is.."In 2017, Revillug, a brilliant young troubleshooter, is dispatched to Earth to forestall a global religious war that is brewing" This is merely the canvas that, in the hands of a very skilled technician like Mr. King, forms the basis of a laugh out-loud delightfully devious novel! The action takes place in Sarasota, FL- a place Mr King knows well as he is a resident- yet this Sarasota is one full of original and intriguing characters. The story flows so nicely and the main characters, Revillug the would be savior and Benjamin Starr, a 70 year old wonder of a fellow and his grandaughter Mary, combine forces, together with George King's expert humor to turn out a most enjoyable and very well written romp! VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
RICK FRIEDMAN
FOUNDER/MODERATOR
THE JAMES MASON COMMUNITY BOOK CLUB
RICK FRIEDMAN
FOUNDER/MODERATOR
THE JAMES MASON COMMUNITY BOOK CLUB
March 31, 2012
An alien, from outer space, comes to warn earthlings that their continued allegiance to organized religion will only lead to their self destruction. A twist on the rapture, “The Rupture” gives a humorous, yet enlightening look at what could happen if religious fanaticism is left unchecked. King uses his gift for flowing prose and sharp edged diction, to tell a story that will touch the nerves of the agnostic and the push the buttons of the believer. I especially liked the comedy routines the alien used to spread his own version of the “word”.
Richard Dawkins and Bill Maher would certainly find this book as enjoyable as I did. I guarantee you’ve read nothing as unique, complete with a time machine that shows what really happened during biblical times.
Richard Dawkins and Bill Maher would certainly find this book as enjoyable as I did. I guarantee you’ve read nothing as unique, complete with a time machine that shows what really happened during biblical times.
March 5, 2012
At one point while reading this book, I was thinking I would rate it 5 stars. My problems were that the overnight success of the comedy as I saw it in my head was not plausible. It wasn't that great. And then the very ending with Jason following the orders of the protesters was just unneeded. Otherwise, I thought it was a great in-your-face response to religious wack-a-dos around the world.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Want to read
April 3, 2010I won this book! Can't wait to read it!
dearly-departed
April 3, 2014Won as part of the Goodreads first reads program. Review to come.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews