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Ashfall Mike Mullin Books

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Ashfall Mike Mullin Books

Ashfall kind of scared the crap out of me. The volcano under Yellowstone National Park erupts and it is the worst disaster the world has seen in...ever. Alex is home alone for the weekend when a chunk of rock collapses his house. His neighbors take him in as they try to block out as much sound as possible. Eventually the noise from the eruption stops, but then comes the ash and the rain. Alex is desperate to find his family who are about two hours away by car. He packs up supplies, straps on some skis, and heads out for a two month journey.

I loved how Ashfall was based on actual science. Sure, there's been no supervolcano eruptions in human history, but there is still data on previous ones, including from Yellowstone. That's what made this so scary. It can actually happen! And I'm a bit closer to the volcano that Alex was! I couldn't help but think about what I would do in this situation, and really, all I came up with was to grab the closest puppy, sit in the closet and cry. Alex goes through hell! In the beginning, I had a hard time accepting a 15 year old heading out into that chaos, not knowing if he even had a family left to find. But eventually I just settled in and enjoyed the ride.

My only complaint about Ashfall, which kept me from loving it, was all of the food talk. We're told about every single morsel that Alex puts in his mouth during these two months. I know food is a major concern in a disaster like this, but I really didn't need that level of detail. It was also annoying in the first half, because Alex eats whenever he's hungry, and then notices that he's probably going to run out of food sooner than he thought. Well, duh! This boy doesn't know how to ration! You can't just eat whenever and however much when you have a limited supply and no way to get more! He does learn once he's empty handed, starving, and scavenging for Skittles.

Ashfall was pretty great overall though. Natural disasters are terrifying things, and reading about Alex's trials made them more real. While this is categorized as Dystopian, I think it's more of a survivalist novel. It's all about staying alive, and the government plays a very small, almost non-existent role in this one. Although I'm sure that's going to change in the following books. This is the immediate aftermath of a supervolcano eruption, and I can't wait to see what happens next!


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Ashfall Mike Mullin Books Reviews

It's hard to know where to begin to describe Mike Mullin's Ashfall. As a first novel, it's phenomenally good - engaging from the get-go, well-paced, with characters that you quickly come to care about, facing one daunting challenge after another in a world beset by a mass-extinction level of catastrophe.

Alex is an almost-sixteen year old boy living in Cedar Falls, Iowa, with his mother, father and younger sister. When his parents decide to visit his uncle in Illinois, Alex doesn't want to go and opts to stay at home, so his parents and sister go without him. The night, when Alex is home alone, the house is rocked by what feels like either a bomb or a massive earthquake. When Alex manages to crawl out of the wreckage, strange things are happening. The sky is heavily overcast and a thick grey ash begins to fall over everything.

Later, Alex sets out to try to make it to Warren, where his parents and sister are. He gears up with whatever he can find, which includes a pair of skis which he uses to ski over the thickening ash like its snow. One of the strengths of Ashfall is the way Mullin brings the feel of how the world has changed to vivid life, immersing you in what Alex sees and experiences

"I passed under Highway 27. Enough ash had blown under the bridge that I didn't have to take off my skis -- I was able to keep sliding along. A little farther on, Lincoln became West Airport Highway. There were lots of commercial and industrial buildings along the road there, mostly newish metal buildings with flat roofs. Every one of them had been crushed by the ash.
--The road was deserted. I knew the airport was somewhere north of me, but I couldn't see it. On a normal day, I might hear a plane passing overhead or taxiing on the runway. That day, there was no sign of activity. The only noise was occasional thunder.
--After a couple hours, the commercial buildings petered out, so I knew I was in the boonies. The corn was also a big clue. Cedar Falls and Waterloo form an island amid a sea of corn. In early September, it stands higher than my head. Now, though, the ash had flattened it. The only way I could tell I was passing a cornfield was the few hardy stalks still standing upright, coated in gray ash, leaves broken under the weight. Every now and then a metal seed sign protruded a foot or so above the ash bed. I passed an occasional field completely covered in ash, an unremittingly flat, gray expanse. Soybeans, maybe.
--I might have been skiing on the surface of the moon for all the activity there was. I passed four or five farmhouses but saw nothing moving. Everything I normally saw in the Iowa countryside was missing There were no people, no cars, no cows -- not even a solitary turkey vulture circling in the sky.
--The weird, rainless thunder and lightning continued. My eyes had adjusted to the darkness, so every time a series of lightning bolts lit up the landscape, it hurt. The thunder seemed strangely muted. Maybe the falling ash muffled it somehow, or maybe my ears hadn't fully recovered from the first enormous explosions.
--Despite the ash, the road was easy to follow. It was raised, with deep ditches on each side. I skied along the crown of the road, where the centerline was buried under its blanket of ash."

Highly, highly recommended.
First off, I'm over 40 and I bought this with my tweens in mind. After a chapter or two, I realized I would NOT want them to read this book until they were much older. Profanity, innuendo, sexual situations and violence throughout. Hunger Games, nor Divergent, nor Harry Potter are this mature. I'm enjoying the books, but only from a very mature standpoint. Interesting and thought provoking, and action packed, yes. But I will NOT let my tweens be reading these until 16 or so.

Reminds me more of Swan Song by Robert McCammon, just thinking of books I would compare these to off the top of my head.

Edited to add just finished all three books. Honestly couldn't put them down. Mike Mullen is an amazing writer. These are so good, I'm worried that someone will try to make these into movies in the future, and will most likely butcher them horribly. I hope not. Mullen paints the pictures so vividly with his writing, a movie would b unnecessary. I'm STILL saying these are NOT for young teens. Very mature content. Love, love, love these books!! Thank you, Mike Mullen, for writing post apocalyptic books that aren't rehashed versions of others of this type. Alex is an amazing character.
Ashfall kind of scared the crap out of me. The volcano under Yellowstone National Park erupts and it is the worst disaster the world has seen in...ever. Alex is home alone for the weekend when a chunk of rock collapses his house. His neighbors take him in as they try to block out as much sound as possible. Eventually the noise from the eruption stops, but then comes the ash and the rain. Alex is desperate to find his family who are about two hours away by car. He packs up supplies, straps on some skis, and heads out for a two month journey.

I loved how Ashfall was based on actual science. Sure, there's been no supervolcano eruptions in human history, but there is still data on previous ones, including from Yellowstone. That's what made this so scary. It can actually happen! And I'm a bit closer to the volcano that Alex was! I couldn't help but think about what I would do in this situation, and really, all I came up with was to grab the closest puppy, sit in the closet and cry. Alex goes through hell! In the beginning, I had a hard time accepting a 15 year old heading out into that chaos, not knowing if he even had a family left to find. But eventually I just settled in and enjoyed the ride.

My only complaint about Ashfall, which kept me from loving it, was all of the food talk. We're told about every single morsel that Alex puts in his mouth during these two months. I know food is a major concern in a disaster like this, but I really didn't need that level of detail. It was also annoying in the first half, because Alex eats whenever he's hungry, and then notices that he's probably going to run out of food sooner than he thought. Well, duh! This boy doesn't know how to ration! You can't just eat whenever and however much when you have a limited supply and no way to get more! He does learn once he's empty handed, starving, and scavenging for Skittles.

Ashfall was pretty great overall though. Natural disasters are terrifying things, and reading about Alex's trials made them more real. While this is categorized as Dystopian, I think it's more of a survivalist novel. It's all about staying alive, and the government plays a very small, almost non-existent role in this one. Although I'm sure that's going to change in the following books. This is the immediate aftermath of a supervolcano eruption, and I can't wait to see what happens next!