violent earthquakes rattle the cornfields,
booms louder than cannons go on for hours and hours,
it seems like the end of the world is now...
but the end is just beginning.
Yellowstone's geysers and fumaroles have always hinted at its geothermal potential for destruction. The supervolcano eruption long feared by geologists has come at last, and Alex's home 900 miles east is under attack from its furies.
The enormous ash plume will spread through the atmosphere, block out sunlight, cause sudden and long-lasting winter weather. No sunshine means no crops growing, no crops means no food, widespread famine and desperation. Imagine the damage that sharp corrosive ash will do to auto engine air intakes, aircraft jet engines, delicate lung tissue of people and animals.
And Alex heads out into this ashfall with meager supplies and no sunrise to guide him eastward, trying to reunite with his family, to survive.
Visiting Yellowstone National Park last September, I smelled the sulfur of its hot spring pools, saw entire forests killed by rising super-scalding water levels, watched Old Faithful geyser jet up hundreds of feet into the sky. Yep, this supervolcano potential is real, and scientists are closely monitoring it - but can't stop it.
First-time author Mike Mullin describes a perilous apocalyptic world which is all the more frightening because it really could happen at any moment. Book two in the series, Ashen Winter, will be published in October 2012 - pre-order it as soon as possible at your favorite independent bookstore because you won't want to wait a single extra day to read what happens after Ashfall!
**kmm
Book info: Ashfall / Mike Mullin. Tanglewood Books, 2011. [author's website] [publisher site] [book trailer]
My Recommendation: Alex wants to skip visiting his uncle’s goat farm, and his
parents finally agree to let the 16-year-old stay home alone this time, on that
September weekend when the whole world changed, when a supervolcano eruption
rocked civilization to its core.
It’s not like Alex was planning a wild party in his parents’
absence – just computer games and junk food on the menu. But those teen
pleasures are gone now, like clear air and electricity and sunshine and phone
service and clean water and trusting other people. Even 900 miles from the
Yellowstone supervolcano, earthquakes throw houses around like kids’ blocks in
their Iowa hometown. Then the ash begins to fall from the sky…and fall and fall
and fall, clogging car engines, making it hard to breathe, getting into every
crevice of his clothes.
Determined to get to his family, Alex gathers whatever food
and gear he can, then heads east cross-country on Dad’s skis. Driving to Warren
takes an hour and a half – how long will it take now? Slogging through
ever-deepening ash, running short of water and food, he avoids farmhouses where
he can see rifle barrels glinting in the windows, tries to find shelter in this
flat farmland it gets colder and colder.
He keeps moving east, encountering very few refugees, some
even less-prepared than he is, one much more dangerous than anyone he ever wanted
to meet. Wounded, he stumbles into the first farmyard along the road and is
taken in by Mrs. Edmunds and her teen daughter. Luckily, Darla has enough
veterinary training to sew him up, and there’s corn to feed them for a while.
Unluckily, trouble is coming down the road toward them, fast.
Can Alex really get to his uncle’s farm under his own power?
Can he protect Darla and her mom if they go with him? What’s their biggest
danger – the ash searing their lungs, the sudden heavy snowfall, or the
viciousness of other people?
