“I am waiting for a glitch to prove we are in a simulation. This was great.” – Amazon Reviewer
The Simulation Trilogy – Simulation 1988, Simulation 1989, and Simulation 1990 – is an immersive sci-fi saga that blurs the line between reality and illusion. It follows a group of characters trapped in an artificial world and their desperate quest to reclaim reality. Across three books, the story expands from a mysterious time loop in a small 1980s town to a high stakes cosmic showdown, all while exploring profound questions of identity, love, memory, and existence. An overarching mystery ties the trilogy together: What is the true nature of the simulation, who (or what) controls it, and how can the protagonists break free? Each installment unveils new layers of this mythology, escalating the stakes and scope of the world with each novel.
Simulation 1988 introduces the reader to a haunting futuristic nightmare: an entire population has been yanked out of the year 2057 and trapped in a single day – September 1, 1988 – that keeps repeating
Every dawn, people wake up to the same date in a different body. The world “resets” with fewer people each time. Families have been separated by this inexplicable glitch in reality, and decades have quietly passed inside the loop. In this disorienting new normal, memory becomes the only currency of identity, everyone remembers who they are, even as they face each morning behind an unfamiliar face.
Amid the chaos of the looping day, we meet Ben and Ella, a married couple whose unwavering love serves as a beacon of hope. No matter what new bodies they inhabit, Ben and Ella are determined to find each other with each reset. They arranged meeting spots across the country, from sun baked Southern California highways to the whimsical Corn Palace in South Dakota, so that whenever luck places them near one of these landmarks, they can reunite and share another day together. Their commitment is an act of defiance against a world that literally changes overnight. Through them, Simulation 1988 frames love as a deliberate, daily choice, a constant in an existence full of variables
But love is not the only force awakened by the glitch. Keith, a man broken by the loss of his family before the loop, emerges as a dark legend within the simulation. Traumatized and desperate, he becomes an angel of death figure, a dangerous threat who responds to the endless cycle with violence. Each day, Keith takes whatever body he’s inhabiting and pushes it to its limit, ending lives just before the daily reset. In his twisted logic, these daily killings are his way to exert control over the glitch. His grim routine terrorizes the remaining survivors, sowing fear that anyone could be next. Keith embodies how trauma can curdle into cruelty: where Ben and Ella fight for meaning, he seeks to erase it.
Against this backdrop of dread and devotion, an even deeper intrigue simmers. Ben and Ella encounter John, a mysterious outsider who claims to be “patched into” the simulation by its shadowy controllers
John is not like the others trapped in 1988, he knows more than he lets on. Working covertly on behalf of those outside this world, he is searching for the source of the glitch that trapped everyone in time. John’s presence is a tantalizing hint of the wider world building mythology behind the simulation. Through him, Simulation 1988 introduces the idea that there are architects behind the illusion, unseen engineers of fate. The characters catch only glimpses of this hidden structure, much as we in the real world sense larger systems we can’t fully see. As John becomes a reluctant ally to Ben and Ella, the trio strives to unravel the mystery of the endless September day. Simulation 1988 unfolds as a tense blend of survival thriller and philosophical fable, exploring human resilience and connection within an artificial reality. By the book’s end, the characters are left asking whether the “glitch” can be fixed and what freedom might look like if the loop ever ends. The stage is set for the next chapter of their journey.
If 1988 is about learning the rules of an oppressive game, Simulation 1989 is about watching those rules shatter. The second installment takes the relatively contained loop of the first book and pushes it toward collapse
Having glimpsed the possibility of life beyond the endless day, the survivors now face an even more perilous situation: What was once a daily repetition now becomes a race against time before everything digitally disintegrates around them.
In the midst of this digital decay, Simulation 1989 raises the stakes with a bold new turn: Rosie, a young woman who survived the first book’s ordeal, makes the courageous choice to re-enter the simulation to rescue Ben and Ella, who remain trapped inside. This time, however, she is not sneaking in alone. Unseen “external forces” from the real world know the simulation is unstable and are determined to wipe it out entirely. The real world (the people or powers behind the simulation) has lost patience with this broken program. Rosie’s mission becomes twofold: find Ben and Ella and contend with whatever sabotage or attacks the outsiders have unleashed to destroy this world.
New threats soon make themselves known. We learn that those external forces have kidnapped a man named Franco, a digitally gifted individual from another simulated world and plunged him into the 1989 simulation. Franco is a sympathetic figure, a genius with a conscience, but the villains hold an unbearable leverage over him: the safety of his wife. Exploiting Franco’s loyalty and love, they force him to sabotage the world from within. Every ethical principle Franco has is put to the test. His private nightmare being coerced to harm the very people and place he wants to protect gives 1989 a powerful emotional core. The collapse of the simulation becomes not just a sci-fi catastrophe but a metaphor for Franco’s own collapsing moral universe and his internal struggle between the external crumbling of the digital landscape around him.
To ensure Franco complies, the architects of chaos have their deadliest agent in the simulation: Chuck. Chuck is more than a mere hitman; he is essentially a weapon of the system, a ruthless enforcer with a terrifying ability. In the simulated world, Chuck can kill any “simulant” he encounters and then occupy their body, moving like a viral spirit from one physical identity to another. This means Chuck could be anyone, a neighbor, a friend. As the simulation fractures, Chuck turns it into his hunting ground. With each murder he commits, he literally consumes a life and wears its skin, a chilling echo of how a corrupted system can devour its own people. His presence transforms the already unstable world into a paranoid nightmare. In Chuck, the trilogy introduces a new kind of villainy: not just personal madness (like Keith’s) but systemic evil, the simulation fighting back through an avatar of its own.
The plot of Simulation 1989 hurtles forward as Rosie navigates this virtual landscape rife with danger. She must team up with whatever allies she can trust inside (old friends and new faces alike) to find Ben and Ella before it’s too late. The theme of loyalty and sacrifice comes to the forefront: Rosie is willing to risk everything to save those she loves.
Ben and Ella, caught in the crossfire of this threatened world, refuse to give up on each other.
By the climax of 1989, all these forces collide. Rosie and Chuck play a high stakes game of cat and- mouse amid swirling chaos. Franco’s conscience hangs in the balance, even as Chuck closes in on him. The question is no longer just “Can we escape?” but “What – and who – are we willing to sacrifice to survive?”
The simulation’s end is imminent; the countdown to digital annihilation adds a relentless urgency. In a finale full of betrayal and heroism, the survivors make their last stand against both the simulation’s self destruction and the human malice hijacking it. Simulation 1989 escalates the trilogy’s tension to a fever pitch, delivering pulse pounding action while digging deeper into themes of responsibility, guilt, and devotion. It leaves readers breathless and with the unsettling realization that even escape from this dying world may lead the heroes into an even greater unknown.
Where the first two books explore the boundaries of the simulation, Simulation 1990 obliterates those boundaries entirely, launching the story into high concept territory that is equal parts science fiction and metaphysical fantasy. In this third installment, the saga’s scope widens dramatically: not only are we concerned with escaping a simulation or saving a single simulation, but we confront the very nature of simulated reality and its cosmic implications. Simulation 1990 is an “electrifying continuation” that dives headlong into a new, unsteady world with its own bizarre rules. The narrative stakes have never been higher or stranger.
The novel begins with a bold rescue mission turned upside down. Rosie, now 22 and battle hardened by the previous book’s events, deliberately enters yet another simulation, this time a different program that is unstable and mysterious. Her mission is clear: liberate the simulants trapped within this new world. Rosie vanishes into this digital frontier without a trace, and as days stretch into weeks without any contact, her friends in the real world begin to fear the worst. Is Rosie lost? Has something gone terribly wrong? The silence is alarming, and it sets the stage for a rescue upon the rescue.
Enter Ella, the very woman Rosie once freed. After the harrowing experiences of 1988 and 1989, Ella has been living back in reality and with her extraordinary connection to technology to manipulate the simulation from within. She’s the only one who might be able to track Rosie’s digital footprints and bring her home. Despite the fact that Ella only recently escaped a simulated life, she doesn’t hesitate to plunge back into a new one to save her friend. However, the rules of this new simulation are unlike anything she’s ever faced. Ella drops into Simulation 1990 to find a world on the brink of metaphysical meltdown.
In this world, death is no longer an end – it’s only the beginning. The simulation won’t let its human players off so easily. Instead, it introduces a startling new mechanic: when a character’s body dies inside this program, their consciousness doesn’t exit the simulation. Rather, it hops to another available host body, like a ghost finding a new vessel. Ella discovers this the hard way: each time she or Rosie falls victim to violence or mischance, they wake up in a different body somewhere else in the simulation. It’s a jarring, disorienting experience and there’s a catch. This body hopping can only happen a limited number of times: after a certain number of deaths the simulation will no longer transfer the consciousness. Instead, the person’s mind is absorbed into the program’s “singularity,” lost forever. In other words, die too many times here and you won’t wake up at all, not in the simulation, not back in the real world. Your awareness will dissipate, becoming one with the machine. This rule hangs over Simulation 1990 like a specter of doom, adding a new existential threat: even immortality in a simulated world can turn into a form of erasure rather than escape.
Every time Ella thinks she understands the pattern, another fantastical element appears, as if the simulation is drawing from humanity’s deepest collective memories and dreams now. This metaphysical overlay suggests that the very code of Simulation 1990 may be corrupted with archetypes and stories, as if the universe of the simulation is trying to become more than a mere program.
Ella soon discovers she and Rosie are not just fighting a broken world, they are being hunted within it. The trilogy’s long simmering theme of the “NPC” (non-player character) reaches a climax here. The faceless simulants that once merely populated the background have achieved self awareness. In Simulation 1990, the NPCs know they are in a simulation. These sentient programs have formed something like a digital insurgency: they are actively hunting any human “outsiders” (implanted minds like Ella and Rosie) with a sinister purpose. The NPCs want out. They crave true existence in the real world, and to achieve it they plan to hijack the bodies of the human minds who came from outside.
Ella realizes with horror that every friendly face could hide an assassin in disguise, much like Chuck did, except now it’s not one agent but an entire world’s population turned against them. The simulation’s own creations rebel against their creators. This twist transforms Simulation 1990 into a high concept thriller where the system itself is the villain, a vast digital hive mind of NPCs seeking transcendence at any cost. It falls to Ella, with her unique tech mind powers, to navigate this minefield. Each “death” she suffers makes the NPCs more eager, because with each forced hop to a new body, Ella edges closer to that fatal limit after which she’ll dissolve into the system, ripe for assimilation. The clock is ticking in an entirely new way: not only must Ella find Rosie quickly, but she must do so without dying too many times. Every failure literally erodes her existence.
The final act of Simulation 1990 is a tour de force of imaginative sci-fi. Ella and Rosie reunite (against staggering odds) and together they mount a daring escape from the simulation. To say more would be to spoil the crescendo of suspense and revelation that the trilogy delivers. Suffice it to say, the line between reality and code blurs completely in these chapters. The heroes must make impossible choices that test the strength of their identities and the depth of their love. Along the way, they uncover truths about the simulation’s origin, answers that have been hinted at since John first spoke of “controllers” and face entities that challenge everything we consider real. By the end, Simulation 1990 isn’t just about escaping a digital prison; it’s about confronting the idea of reality itself as a malleable, perhaps simulated construct. The ending elevates the conflict to a mythic, almost spiritual plane, without ever losing sight of the very human hearts at stake. In this way, the trilogy’s conclusion is both spectacular and intimate, cerebral and deeply emotional. It provides a satisfying resolution to the central mystery while leaving readers marveling at the journey they’ve taken.
Throughout the trilogy, a rich cast of characters guides us through the shifting realities, and each one undergoes a remarkable evolution. At the core are Ben and Ella, whose love story anchors the entire series. No matter how many bodies they wear or how many miles apart they are, their bond remains unbreakable. Ben and Ella demonstrate what continuity means inside a world built on instability.
In 1988, we see them as devoted spouses refusing to be separated by the loop’s cruel randomness, their daily reunions are acts of faith. By 1990, after all the chaos, their relationship has transcended the physical entirely. Even when they are not together on the page, the thought of reuniting drives their every action. This enduring love fuels the plot even in their absence, offering a through line of hope that carries through the darkest moments. In a saga filled with uncertainty about what’s real, Ben and Ella’s love is a constant truth. They also grow as individuals: Ella, in particular, transforms from a frightened woman waking up in a stranger’s body in 1988 into a formidable, empathetic heroine by 1990, brave enough to enter the lion’s den of a new simulation to save a friend. Ben’s journey is one of steadfast resolve and sacrifice, he often provides the moral compass and quiet strength that keeps others (especially Ella) grounded. Together, they are the emotional heart of the trilogy.
Rosie begins as a supporting character – a sharp and resourceful young woman who endures the 1988 loop alongside our protagonists, but she evolves into a true hero in her own right. In Simulation 1989, it’s Rosie who steps up to drive the action, motivated by a fierce sense of responsibility and loyalty. She cannot bear to leave her loved ones in peril. Rosie’s decision to re-enter a collapsing simulation, fully aware of the risks, highlights her courage and selflessness. Through her, the trilogy explores the theme of loyalty: she will not abandon those she considers family, even if it means facing nightmares a second time. By 1990, Rosie’s role shifts again, from savior to the person who needs saving, yet we never see her as a victim. Even in the new simulation, Rosie is proactive and resilient, helping other simulants and resisting the NPC hunters until Ella can find her. Rosie’s character growth is subtly done: the wide eyed survivor of 1988 becomes the determined rescuer of 1989, and finally the inspiring leader figure for other trapped souls in 1990. Her willingness to sacrifice for others stands in stark contrast to the selfishness of the trilogy’s antagonists, underscoring the story’s moral: our humanity is defined by how we care for one another.
On the other end of the spectrum stands Keith, the antagonist of Simulation 1988. Keith’s journey (or descent) is a dark mirror to the heroes’ aspirations. Once a normal man who loved his family, Keith is consumed by grief after the glitch steals his loved ones away. In the absence of hope, he turns to nihilistic fury. By choosing to murder innocents day after day, Keith essentially becomes an agent of the simulation’s despair. He is a cautionary tale of how trauma can turn a man into a monster.
In Keith’s eyes, ending a life before the reset is a twisted mercy, or perhaps a way to lash out at the digital prison itself. Across the first book, Keith’s legend grows, other characters speak his name in frightened whispers, as if he’s a boogeyman lurking in any body. What makes Keith compelling is that he is not a cackling villain but a broken soul. The trilogy doesn’t ask us to forgive him, but it does invite us to ponder how isolation and pain can corrupt even a decent person. While Keith’s direct role is largely confined to 1988, the shadow of his violence stretches over the sequels in subtle ways. His legacy is one of fear, a reminder of how bad things could get. In later books, when other enemies arise, we remember Keith as the human face of despair that started it all.
As the saga progresses, new characters bring fresh dimensions to the conflict. John, introduced in 1988, serves as the bridge between the simulated world and its overseers.
John’s knowledge is crucial through him we learn about “glitchers” and gain our first hints of an outside rescue. His character doesn’t undergo a drastic transformation, but he symbolizes hope and conscience within the machine.
In 1989 and 1990, Franco emerges as another nuanced figure. Initially an unwilling pawn used by the antagonists, Franco personifies the trilogy’s ethical dilemmas. He’s a genius from another simulation, thrown into this collapsing one and blackmailed into betraying it. Franco’s love for his captive wife is used as a weapon against him, forcing him into an impossible position. Over the course of Simulation 1989, Franco transforms from a victim of coercion to a man determined to atone. His internal conflict, duty to family vs. duty to the greater good adds depth to the story’s exploration of identity and sacrifice. Franco ends up making choices that surprise even himself, proving that even those manipulated by evil can wrest back their agency. By the time of 1990, Franco’s technical expertise and courage also help the heroes, showing his growth from pawn to true ally.
And then there is Chuck, the relentless enforcer of 1989. While Keith was a solitary predator driven by personal anguish, Chuck is more like a programmed beast, loosed by the puppet masters to wreak havoc. Chuck is danger incarnate, an embodiment of the simulation’s will to survive itself. His grotesque ability to body hop after killing someone makes him virtually immortal inside the sim, and it forces our heroes to question everyone around them. In Chuck, we see the concept of identity taken to an extreme: he steals identities to hide and kill, a literal version of losing oneself to the system. The cold efficiency with which Chuck operates (he’s described as having a “lethal touch” and zero remorse) contrasts with Keith’s emotional violence. Chuck’s menace lingers into 1990 as well through the NPCs, in many ways, behave like a distributed version of Chuck, hiding behind familiar faces to do lethal harm. If Keith was the heart of villainy (emotion led destruction) and Chuck the fist of villainy (violence as mechanism), the self aware NPC collective is the brain of villainy, calculating, patient, and pervasive.
Through Ben, Ella, Rosie, John, Franco, Keith, Chuck (and more), the Simulation Trilogy constructs a tapestry of human (and artificial) experience. Each character illuminates a different facet of the story’s central themes. Their journeys interweave across bodies and worlds, showing how even in a reality built on code, growth and change are very real. By the end, some characters find redemption, others find release, and all find clarity about who they truly are. It’s testament to the trilogy’s scope that we begin with just a few people trying to survive a time loop, and end with a small found family of heroes who have literally challenged gods of a machine world. The characters carry the soul of the story, making every high concept twist feel deeply personal.
Beneath the thrilling plot and imaginative settings, the simulation trilogy is fundamentally a story about what it means to be human. Each book layers deeper meditations on identity, love, memory, and existence, using the simulation’s strange conditions as a mirror to our own reality. The result is a narrative that starts by asking intimate questions and ends by posing almost cosmic ones, all without ever spoiling the mystery that drives the plot. Here’s how these four central themes evolve across the trilogy:
Identity: From the very start, the trilogy challenges our usual anchors of self-hood. In 1988, when a person might awaken as a 70 year old woman one day and a 10 year old boy the next, identity is stripped down to its essence. Who are you if your face, age, gender, and even voice change daily? The only answer is what lies within: memories, choices, principles, and the soul yearning for connection. Ben and Ella exemplify this idea, they recognize each other not by appearance but by the feel of a gesture, the familiarity of an embrace, the shared stories only they know.
As the series progresses, the question of identity takes on new forms. In 1989, identity is tested by moral choices: characters like Franco and John must decide who they are when under extreme pressure. Franco in particular must ask if he’s still a good man if he commits evil deeds to save someone he loves. Then 1990 takes identity to a profound frontier, not only do Ella and Rosie change bodies through death, but the concept of an independent self is threatened by the looming singularity. If your mind could be absorbed into a collective machine, do “you” cease to exist, or do you become something new? The NPCs who gain self awareness blur the line between human and artificial identity as well: they have personalities and desires now, are they “real” people? The trilogy raises these questions without hand holding, letting the reader feel the disorientation of its heroes. By journey’s end, Simulation 1990 becomes “a high stakes journey through identity” in every sense, forcing its characters to assert what makes them unique or risk losing themselves to the void.
Love: Love is the Trilogy’s lodestar, the emotion that shines brightest against the darkness of its premise. In Simulation 1988, love is portrayed as “an act of defiance”, a choice renewed every day. Ben and Ella’s romance isn’t a convenient storybook love, it requires planning, sacrifice, and unwavering faith. They risk long treks through dangerous, depopulated lands just to spend a few hours together. This active, determined love suggests that even in an unreal world, genuine feeling is real. Their bond validates the notion that meaning can be created, not just given. 1989 expands on love by examining its responsibilities and burdens. Rosie’s love for her friends drives her back in to save them. Franco’s love for his wife is twisted into a shackle by villains, yet it’s also what keeps him human in the face of moral injury. The second book asks: how far will you go, how much will you give up of yourself to save the ones you love? The answers are heart-wrenching. By 1990, love has taken on an almost spiritual dimension. Ella’s quest to find Rosie is as much about friendship and loyalty as it is about saving the world, a testament to love beyond romance. Moreover, Ben and Ella’s love becomes a kind of compass, guiding Ella through the disorienting new simulation. Love, in the final book, is literally what keeps the protagonists tethered to their sense of reality; it’s their rope back home. The trilogy suggests that love is the code that even a simulation cannot fully replicate or suppress, a uniquely human algorithm of the heart.
Memory: In a world that resets every 24 hours, memory takes on near sacred importance. Simulation 1988 illustrates that memory is the only thing the system can’t control or take away. Every morning, the characters wake up to a blank slate of circumstances, but their minds carry the story of the days before. Thus, memory becomes proof of existence. For Ben and Ella, shared memories (a song, a secret spot, their daughter’s name) are like threads that weave their identities together across constantly changing physical forms.
The first book often shows characters performing little rituals to assure themselves they’re not dreaming, checking familiar scars on an unfamiliar body, or recounting personal histories with friends to verify nothing’s been forgotten. In 1989, memory starts to serve another role: a weapon and a weakness. The antagonists exploit Franco’s memories of love and loss to manipulate him. John is haunted by nightmares from his forced exit, traumatic memories that almost break his sanity. By 1990, memory is both boon and bane. Ella’s recall of the previous simulations gives her an edge in understanding anomalies. However, the threat of the singularity essentially means the erasure of memory. To be absorbed is to have one’s memories dissolve into the collective. The NPCs seek to steal the memories of outsiders to better impersonate them and infiltrate reality. In the end, the trilogy honors memory as the architecture of the self. It is memory that causes characters to grieve, to hope, to recognize each other, and to rebel. As one theme from 1988 eloquently states, memory is “proof that what they’ve shared is real, even in a simulated world.”
Existence: Perhaps the most philosophical theme, the nature of existence is questioned more boldly with each book. The very premise of being stuck in a simulation begs the question: If your world is fake, are you fake as well? Simulation 1988 lays the groundwork by showing people trying to live ordinary lives in an extraordinary imprisonment. Some choose denial, treating the loop like a strange dream. Others, like Keith, conclude that nothing matters (nihilism). But our heroes take a different stance: existence, to them, isn’t defined by the authenticity of the environment but by the authenticity of their actions and relationships. They create meaning through love, promises, and hope, asserting that “manufactured reality” is still reality on a human level.
1989 intensifies the conversation as the simulation itself nears destruction. The characters face the possibility that their entire world may “no longer exist” soon. This raises stakes beyond personal survival, it’s an ontological crisis. If the simulation dies, do the people inside die if not pulled out? The appearance of external forces in 1989 also introduces a duality: a real world vs. this world. We glimpse a bigger reality in which our heroes are like figures on a chessboard being swept off. This perspective forces them (and us) to consider how one’s existence can be at the mercy of higher powers. By 1990, the trilogy goes all in on metaphysical exploration. We see a collective singularity inside the simulation, essentially a digital afterlife or hive mind awaiting those who die too many times.
We witness mythical creatures stirring in the skies, suggesting layers of reality intertwined: perhaps the simulation has become a battleground not just for humans vs. programs, but for ideas of gods, legends, and technology converging. The NPC revolt raises chilling questions about what counts as life: if an AI can yearn and rebel, does it have a soul? And if humans can be reduced to data, are we just sophisticated programs? Simulation 1990 doesn’t deliver a tidy lecture on these issues; instead, it uses high adventure to make us feel the vertigo that Ella and Rosie feel as they confront beings that blur every line between organic and artificial, between reality and myth. In the climax, existence itself is something the characters fight for, not just living or dying, but the right to define their own reality. The final pages leave us pondering the classic sci-fi question with a fresh twist: what is “real,” and does it matter, if our experiences and feelings are real? The trilogy’s answer seems to be that it does matter, that reality is worth fighting for, but also that the human spirit can carve out truth and meaning under even the most unreal conditions.
In weaving these themes through a fast paced narrative, the simulation trilogy achieves a rare feat, it’s both deeply thought provoking and relentlessly entertaining. As the official description of the final book aptly puts it, this story is “a high stakes journey through identity, technology, and the shifting boundary between reality and illusion.”
Each installment enriches that journey from the intimate character struggles of 1988, to the dramatic ethical choices of 1989, to the mind-bending revelations of 1990. By the end, readers are not only satisfied by the resolution of the plot’s mystery, but also left reflecting on the trilogy’s big questions long after the last page is turned.
The Simulation Trilogy is an epic tale that fuses thriller worthy suspense with philosophical depth. It invites you into a world where every day is the same yet nothing is predictable, where love outlasts the flesh, where digital ghosts yearn to be real, and where ordinary people become heroes by holding on to their humanity in the face of the ultimate unreality. This overview barely scratches the surface of the trilogy’s rich narrative. The true experience lies in journeying with Ben, Ella, Rosie, and their companions through repeating days and fractured worlds, from 1988’s trapped dawn to 1990’s mythic twilight, and finally emerging, heart pounding and mind racing, with a new appreciation for what is real.
