The Temptations of Pleasure Island

          “This is a great place,, but these people think about nothing but having fun. Everybody goes somewhere every night. A party, or a race, or a concert, or a ball. There’s got to be more to life than just having fun!”

Book: The Temptations of Pleasure Island by Gilbert Morris, Moody Publishers, 2000

Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Adventure/Futuristic

Target Audience: Boys and Girls 13-17

Subject: Pleasure and entertainment, gambling, good vs. evil, relationships with family, temptation

Summary: A vacation at last! The sleepers are sent to Pleasure Island for some relaxation and there’s no place better for it. These people are absolute experts at having fun. The sleepers are honored guests of the royal family and given all the privileges of such. Reb gets to join the horse racing, Abby gets to go shopping and the others are offered plenty of fun activities as well. But all is not as it seems on the surface. The king has been getting more and more depressed and the Dark Lord is planning on taking full advantage of the focus on fun to achieve his own goals. And if the sleepers get in the way, they’ll just be destroyed.

Notes: This story looks at how temptation can come disguised as something fun and pleasurable. The people of this kingdom are offered any form of pleasure they desire but the most they focus on the it, the less fulfilled they become.  The Seven Sleepers series is Science Fiction in that it is futuristic. It is not meant to be fantasy. It is meant to be realistic fiction set in the future, but it seems like fantasy most of the time! The story takes place after the earth has been almost destroyed by nuclear warfare. What's left has been genetically changed and messed up. All sorts of strange creatures and people exist now that didn't before. Whether it be giants, dinosaurs or something else, most of "Nuworld" is strange and seems like something that could only exist in fantasy. The sleepers are 7 children who were placed in sleep capsules right before the war began, then the capsules opened 50 years later to this genetically altered world.

Recommendation Scale: 5/5

Reviewer: J:-)mi

And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’  “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’  “This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.”