Sam Temple is the main protagonist of the 6-part selection of novels, the Gone series, and a secondary character in its sequel, the Monster trilogy. He takes charge when a supernatural event in his town, Perdido Beach, causes strange things to happen like everyone over the age of 15 vanishing, a barrier surrounding the town, and certain children developing powers, with himself amongst them. The area surrounding the barrier was labeled as the FAYZ (Fallout Ally Youth Zone).

His Good Ranking[]

What Makes Him Admirable?[]

Background[]

• Even before the FAYZ, Sam proves he's heroic when his school bus driver has a heart attack on a road by a cliff. He took action by steering the bus to safety and called 911 on the driver's phone.
• Although the first usage of his powers was burning off his stepfather Tom's hand, this was an accident as he thought Tom was hurting his mother and acted on impulse.

Gone[]

• When the adults disappear, he helps Astrid find her brother, Little Pete.
• After a building is set on fire, he runs inside to rescue a girl.
• While he unintentionally kills the girl in self-defense after she almost burns him to death with her powers, he is distraught afterward.
• He defends Bette when Orc and his goons are beating her to death despite being outnumbered and outmuscled.
• He leads his forces in the Thanksgiving battle, saving many preschoolers who were being taken hostage by coyotes along with fighting and defeating his fraternal twin, Caine, putting an end to his tyrannical rule over the town.
• He shows mercy towards Caine despite everything he did, allowing him to leave after winning. He also offers hospitality to Diana and some of the other Coates students working for Caine if they want it.

Hunger[]

• Despite not wanting it, he takes up the role of mayor of Perdido Beach in Caine's place as the town looks to him for guidance.
• He fights Caine's forces again at the power plant and allows himself to get tortured by Drake Merwin when Drake threatens to cause a nuclear meltdown if he doesn't.
• He puts aside his differences with Caine, and they work together to stop the Gaiaphage.

Lies[]

• He is unable to bring himself to finish off the undead Drake because he shares a body with an innocent girl called Brittany Donegal.

Plague[]

• He mercy kills both Hunter and the coyote pack leader when they are having their insides eaten out by bugs.
• He fights on the frontlines in the battle against the Gaiaphage's bug army.
• He allows the pregnant Diana to join his side during Caine's diplomatic takeover of the town where people are given the choice to leave with him or stay with Caine.

Light[]

• He goes with Caine to fight the Gaiaphage head-on despite the massive power difference in the fight, leading to him getting severely injured in the process.
• He is willing to make a hopeless last stand against the Gaiaphage when the missiles they fired fail to destroy it, only being saved by Caine, now possessed by Little Pete.

Monster[]

• He offers shelter to Aristotle Adamo and Dekka Talent.

Hero[]

• He crashes the train housing Vector, attempting to save the hostages being held.

What Makes Him Inconsistent?[]

• While he usually avoids killing unless necessary, sometimes he still impulsively resorts to lethality as he expressed a clear desire to terminate villains like Drake, Zil, and even Caine at one point in a mindless fury.
• He has several jerkish moments throughout the series, especially in later books.
• He soft-cheated on his girlfriend, Astrid, by kissing another girl while drunk after arguing with her because she didn't sleep with him due to her Christian beliefs.
• He makes some morally dubious decisions throughout the series:
  • He took advantage of Orc's alcoholism by bribing him into retrieving cabbages from a field with beer. This facilitated Orc’s downward spiral into a pit of depression and self-destruction, eventually culminating in him accidentally killing a child in a drunken rage.
  • He was willing to send the speedster, Brianna, out in the dark to find Astrid after she left to deliver an important letter to Caine while it was unsafe to be out. This completely disregarded Brianna's safety as she could die or get injured while travelling at such high speeds without clear visibility.
  • He cremated Penny’s corpse in front of all the adults outside the FAYZ in an act of defiance. This was a totally unnecessary show of brutality that likely only continued to hurt the reputation of himself and the children in the FAYZ. This also makes his chastising of Brianna for her reckless interview with the adults extremely hypocritical.

Trivia[]

• Ironically, his twin brother, Caine Soren, is Inconsistently Heinous.