Ashen Winter by Mike Mullin

Published: October 2012

Publisher: Tanglewood Press

Pages: 576

Copy Provided by: Library

Summary: Goodreads

Summary:

It’s been over six months since the eruption of the Yellowstone supervolcano. Alex and Darla have been staying with Alex’s relatives, trying to cope with the new reality of the primitive world so vividly portrayed in Ashfall, the first book in this series. It’s also been six months of waiting for Alex’s parents to return from Iowa. Alex and Darla decide they can wait no longer and must retrace their journey into Iowa to find and bring back Alex’s parents to the tenuous safety of Illinois. But the landscape they cross is even more perilous than before, with life-and-death battles for food and power between the remaining communities. When the unthinkable happens, Alex must find new reserves of strength and determination to survive.

Review:

This is one of those series where you CAN'T just jump into book #2 and carry on as if you know what is happening.  Mr. Mullin has done a lot of character and story development with Ashfall and it would be hard to begin with this title.  That being said, if you haven't already read Ashfall, now would be a good time to do so.  This is  fantastic apocalyptic series and if this is a genre you appreciate, it is certainly not to be missed.  

SO IF YOU HAVEN'T READ ASHFALL, BE PREPARED FOR PLENTY OF SPOILERS IN MY REVIEW....

Ashen Winter picks up right where Ashfall ends and Alex feels the desire to look for his family.  Darla, even though she is fully accepted with his family, cannot let him leave on his own and accompanies him back into the fray.  I'm not sure I would have the courage to do what he does in this novel.  He is constantly thrown into impossible situations and has to dig deep to make decisions that are not always in his best interests but are morally correct.  Alex and Darla are a team to be reckoned with when together but when they become separated, Alex will stop at nothing to get her back...all the while, opening themselves up to more and more dangers.  

At 576 pages, this was an incredibly long book for me but at the same time, Mike Mullin jam packs the second book with so much action and so many new characters that I flew through the pages, wanting to devour more.  I came to really appreciate Alex and his level of courage.  For a teenager, he has developed some incredible character skills.  I do want to mention that as the need for food and medicine wears on, the level of survival escalates and Mr. Mullin introduces the idea of cannibalism into the novel.  Not a great topic for a younger audience but realistic (and a little disturbing) nonetheless.  This would make for an excellent ISU title series (obviously not for someone who doesn't like to read long novels) and I would highly recommend it for all genders.  

Ashes by Ilsa J Bick

Published: Sept. 6th, 2011

Publisher: Egmont, USA

Pages: 480

E-Copy: Courtesy of Netgalley and Publisher

Summary: Goodreads

It could happen tomorrow...



A cataclysmic event. An army of "The Changed."

Can one teen really survive on her own?

An electromagnetic pulse sweeps through the sky, destroying every electronic device and killing billions. For those spared, it's a question of who can be trusted and who is no longer human...


Desperate to find out what happened and to avoid the Changed, Alex meets up with Tom---a young army veteran---and Ellie, a young girl whose grandfather was killed by the electromagnetic pulse.


This improvised family will have to use every ounce of courage they have just to survive.

When I started reading 'Ashes' I was thinking I would just give it a few pages more since it wasn't really capturing my attention - I wasn't sure where it was going. Then BAM ....everything hits the fan and the story takes off, with things going from bad, to worse, to worst.  I was absolutely enthralled by the book and felt an almost visceral fear as I was reading.  It seems so very plausible, and therefore so much more disturbing.
 
The story revolves around Alex and her experiences after the 'event'.  Alex has a handicap, not a physical one, but a medical one, and this affects her way of thinking.  She meets up with Ellie,  an irritating 8 yr old, and Tom, a  very self sufficient soldier and together they try to make sense of what has happened and to cope through the winter.  Each of these characters is well rounded and well written and it is easy to believe in their struggles.  A variety of other characters flit in and out of the story and we are constantly hoping that the situation will improve for Alex, Ellie and Tom.  There are some wild surprises and surprising characters that will leave your heart pounding.

I have wondered occasionally how I would cope if there were some kind of apocalyptic event. Would I be calm and sensible, or would I fall apart? Would I be able to adjust to a new world? 'Ashes' asks just that question. How do we cope in extreme adversity? What would happen to society when everything we know has gone?

Ms. Bick gives us a very intriguing answer to that question. She writes in such a way that you almost become part of the action.  There is small hope, huge despair and struggle and an almost palpable sense of dread - with no end in sight,  but the need to turn each page and find out how the characters cope is so compelling that it was physically hard to put the book (or ereader in this case) down.  It's an exciting  and incredibly gripping book and has easily become one of my favourites for the year. I am anxiously waiting for the follow-up, although I suspect this will be quite some time arriving as 'Ashes' isn't published until next month.  Thanks again to Egmont for the opportunity to read this marvellous book.


Gramatical changes made at 12.30 am Aug 29th.

The Scorch Trials by James Dashner

Published: September 2010

Publisher: Random House Childrens Books

# pages: 360

Copy provided by: Library

Summary: Goodreads

Solving the Maze was supposed to be the end. No more puzzles. No more variables. And no more running. Thomas was sure that escape meant he and the Gladers would get their lives back. But no one really knew what sort of life they were going back to.
In the Maze, life was easy. They had food, and shelter, and safety . . . until Teresa triggered the end. In the world outside the Maze, however, the end was triggered long ago.
Burned by sun flares and baked by a new, brutal climate, the earth is a wasteland. Government has disintegrated—and with it, order—and now Cranks, people covered in festering wounds and driven to murderous insanity by the infectious disease known as the Flare, roam the crumbling cities hunting for their next victim . . . and meal.
The Gladers are far from finished with running. Instead of freedom, they find themselves faced with another trial. They must cross the Scorch, the most burned-out section of the world, and arrive at a safe haven in two weeks. And WICKED has made sure to adjust the variables and stack the odds against them.
Thomas can only wonder—does he hold the secret of freedom somewhere in his mind? Or will he forever be at the mercy of WICKED?

Review

Every now and again you find a book that just grabs you and won't let you go. That's what happened for me with 'The Scorch Trials' This sequel to 'The Maze Runner' lived up to all my expections.

The premise is not new - people struggling to survive after an apocalyptic event - but the way it has been executed is. Kids are being manipulated and they don't know why. They are pawns in someone else's game. In this book, our main protagonist, Thomas, has had some of his memories return, but instead of helping him, they just serve to confuse him even more. Thomas and the other gladers that survived the maze have even more trials to complete - and even less resources to help them this time around.

There is lots of emotion in this book. Fear, anger, dispair, disappointment, betrayal - all of it negative. I found myself empathizing with the characters. How could they be expected to carry on? There were some parts where I actually felt my stomach turning, and I became nervous. I wanted to stop reading, because I knew another bad thing was going to happen. But you can't stop reading, because you have to find out if ,and how they all survive.

' Someone said "You better hold him down. Legs and arms." Though his mind still floated in fog, those words didn't sound good. A flash of light on silver in his vision, the fading sun's reflection on ... a knife? Was it glowing red? "This is gonna hurt somethin' awful."

In my heart I know that the end of the next book will be positive. It has to be! These kids can't survive much more. I have to read it and find out what happens, even though I know it will be a struggle for the characters. What is going to happen to Tom and Theresa, Brenda, Minho, Newt and all the others. I don't know, but I can't wait to find out.