Review: Sunrise by Mike Mullin

Title: Sunrise
Author: Mike Mullin
Series: Ashfall #3
Publisher: Tanglewood Press
Publication Date: April 15, 2014
Source: Received from publisher via Netgalley
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

The Yellowstone supervolcano nearly wiped out the human race. Now, almost a year after the eruption, the survivors seem determined to finish the job. Communities wage war on each other, gangs of cannibals roam the countryside, and what little government survived the eruption has collapsed completely. The ham radio has gone silent. Sickness, cold, and starvation are the survivors' constant companions.

When it becomes apparent that their home is no longer safe and adults are not facing the stark realities, Alex and Darla must create a community that can survive the ongoing disaster, an almost impossible task requiring even more guts and more smarts than ever — and unthinkable sacrifice. If they fail . . . they, their loved ones, and the few remaining survivors will perish.

This epic finale has the heart of Ashfall, the action of Ashen Winter, and a depth all its own, examining questions of responsibility and bravery, civilization and society, illuminated by the story of an unshakable love that transcends a post-apocalyptic world and even life itself.

It’s here!!! Well, it will be tomorrow. The final Ashfall book, and I have to say I was pretty psyched for it. I didn’t love it, but I did like it. It was hard to read. I thought Ashfall and Ashen Winter were brutal, but Sunrise took the cake. We pick up pretty much immediately where Ashen Winter leaves off.

There are a few things I loved about Sunrise, and a few things I didn’t. It wasn’t a horrible ending to the trilogy, but I would have loved an epilogue. One thing I wasn’t a huge fan of was the gore. There are some really nasty bloody gross scenes in this one. One in particular that made me put my kindle down for a little while.

This is not the kind of world I would ever want to live in. EVER! I think I would prefer the Zombie Apocalypse over dealing with those crazy ass cannabals. *shudders* I was reading this the other night for a bit before I watched The Walking Dead. Then I went to bed. Bad idea, the dreams I had were horrendous.

One of my favorite parts of Sunrise was the survival tactics. I’m really into gardening, so all the neat stuff they rigged up kept me fascinated. It made me really think about how people would actually survive if this kind of thing actually happened. I kinda want to have my own greenhouse and start living off the grid after reading these books. With a working shower of course, I'm no dirty hippy.

Corruption is still on blast in this one. The town of Warren are full of idiots, and I hated the mayor. You just wait and see. What a pompous fool and Alex’s mother!!??? I wanted to slap a bitch, so...many...times.

The ending… I won’t reveal how it all wraps up, but I have to mention that it felt a little rushed to me. I was sitting on the couch, 4 % left, staring at nothing. I said to my husband that I didn’t see how it could end that quickly with all that was going on. Think about the finalie of a fireworks show. Boom Boom Boom… done. I wanted more closure. It just wasn’t enough, and maybe it was done purposely that way? I would read a spin off series if it was written, just putting that out there. Though this was more of a 3 1/2 start for me (rounded up) I’m still glad I took a chance on these books.

About the author:



Mike Mullin’s first job was scraping the gum off the undersides of desks at his high school.
From there, things went steadily downhill. He almost got fired by the owner of a bookstore due to his poor taste in earrings. He worked at a place that showed slides of poopy diapers during lunch (it did cut down on the cafeteria budget). The hazing process at the next company included eating live termites raised by the resident entomologist, so that didn’t last long either. For a while Mike juggled bottles at a wine shop, sometimes to disastrous effect. Oh, and then there was the job where swarms of wasps occasionally tried to chase him off ladders. So he’s really hoping this writing thing works out.

Mike holds a black belt in Songahm Taekwondo. He lives in Indianapolis with his wife and her three cats. ASHFALL is his first novel.

Find Mike:

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

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Labels: apocalypse, ashfall, mike mullin, natural disaster, reviews, sunrise, tanglewood press, volcano, yellow stone

Review: Ashen Winter by Mike Mullin

Title: Ashen Winter
Author: Mike Mullin
Series: Ashfall #2
Publisher: Tanglewood Press
Publication Date: October 16th, 2012
Source: Purchased
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

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.

I loved Ashfall, so I nearly tripped over myself to dive into Ashen Winter. I liked it, but it didn’t live up to book one. I have this problem sometimes with books like this. The disaster happens, and the excitement dies down, you’re left with the aftermath. That’s not always as fun to read about. Ashen Winter starts off about 10 months prior to the eruption. The opening lines are perfect…

“Ten months had passed since I’d last seen the sun. The rich blue of that final August sky was fading from my memory. Colors are slippery: If you cover your eyes and try to remember blue, you see black”

From here on, if you haven’t read Ashfall yet and you don’t want to be spoiled, leave now… *cue evil music*

So in Ashfall, Alex’s main goal is to make it to his uncles farm so he can be with his family. Along the way he meets Darla, and together they go through all kinds of crazy stuff, but they make it. Only to find out that Alex’s parents already left. They left so that they could go back and find him.

When his parents don’t come back after 6 months of searching, he packs up some supplies and heads out with Darla to find them. It seems almost like a needle in a hay stack honestly. What are the chances they are even alive.

All kinds of stuff goes down, and I won’t spoil, but the world has not changed for the better in these horrible times. The worst part of the whole disaster is watching human nature take over. People get crazy!! Like really freaking crazy, I couldn’t help but roll my eyes and wonder… would it really be like that? Could it really get that bad?

I suppose it could, but I sure hope not. I feel like Alex is the Luckiest guy and also the least lucky guy. My goodness these poor kids go through hell, but everything does eventually seem to work out for them.

The main focus of Ashen Winter I would say, is the corrupted world they live in now. That made it drag a little for me but all the action kept me turning the page. I’m interested to see how the trilogy will wrap up.

About the author:



Mike Mullin’s first job was scraping the gum off the undersides of desks at his high school.
From there, things went steadily downhill. He almost got fired by the owner of a bookstore due to his poor taste in earrings. He worked at a place that showed slides of poopy diapers during lunch (it did cut down on the cafeteria budget). The hazing process at the next company included eating live termites raised by the resident entomologist, so that didn’t last long either. For a while Mike juggled bottles at a wine shop, sometimes to disastrous effect. Oh, and then there was the job where swarms of wasps occasionally tried to chase him off ladders. So he’s really hoping this writing thing works out.

Mike holds a black belt in Songahm Taekwondo. He lives in Indianapolis with his wife and her three cats. ASHFALL is his first novel.

Find Mike:

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

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Labels: apocalypse, ashen winter, ashfall, mike mullin, natural disaster, reviews, tanglewood press, volcano

Review: Ashfall by Mike Mullin

Title: Ashfall
Author: Mike Mullin
Series: Ashfall #1
Publisher: Tanglewood Press
Publication Date: October 11th, 2011
Source: Purchased
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Under the bubbling hot springs and geysers of Yellowstone National Park is a supervolcano. Most people don't know it's there. The caldera is so large that it can only be seen from a plane or satellite. It just could be overdue for an eruption, which would change the landscape and climate of our planet.

For Alex, being left alone for the weekend means having the freedom to play computer games and hang out with his friends without hassle from his mother. Then the Yellowstone supervolcano erupts, plunging his hometown into a nightmare of darkness, ash, and violence. Alex begins a harrowing trek to seach for his family and finds help in Darla, a travel partner he meets along the way. Together they must find the strength and skills to survive and outlast an epic disaster.

I have wanted to read Ashfall for ages. Ever since I read the Last Survivors books by Susan Beth Pfeffer, I’ve had this slight obsession with anything revolving around natural disasters. I finally bought Ashfall and Ashen Winter late last year, determined I was going to get to these if it killed me. So when I saw the final book Sunrise pop up on NetGalley, I jumped on it. It was the perfect opportunity. Now I had to squeeze them into my reading list.

I’ll tell you what, I will forever wonder what the hell took me so long, because I loved it just as much as I thought I would. Ashfall is full of win on all fronts. It follows Alex, your average male teen. He’s into playing his video games and hiding out away from his moms constant nagging. He’s typical and very relatable. When his parents and annoying little sister go to visit his uncles farm the unthinkable happens.

Yellowstone blows up! Can you freaking imagine! This was written out perfectly, I sat on my couch scared out of my panties reading this crap. You would think the Ashfall is the worst of the situation, but there are so many other obstacles you wouldn’t think of. It was positively frightening and realistic feeling. The stuff this poor kid goes through, “Oh my heart.”

“Ask someone to lock you in a box with no light, nobody to talk to, and then have them beat on it with a tree limb to make a hideous booming sound. Do that for hours, and if you’re still not bat-shit crazy, you’ll know how we felt.”

He sets out to find his family and runs into all kinds of horrible things on the way. The one good thing he comes across is Darla and she’s bad ass. I loved her, and together they make a great team.

I absolutely loved this book. It’s rough, and not for the faint of heart, because seriously if something like this really happened, we would be in a world of shit. They go through a ton of horrible things. :( I’ve already started Ashen Winter and its’ just as engaging as Ashfall so far. 

How I feel about this book

About the author:



Mike Mullin’s first job was scraping the gum off the undersides of desks at his high school.
From there, things went steadily downhill. He almost got fired by the owner of a bookstore due to his poor taste in earrings. He worked at a place that showed slides of poopy diapers during lunch (it did cut down on the cafeteria budget). The hazing process at the next company included eating live termites raised by the resident entomologist, so that didn’t last long either. For a while Mike juggled bottles at a wine shop, sometimes to disastrous effect. Oh, and then there was the job where swarms of wasps occasionally tried to chase him off ladders. So he’s really hoping this writing thing works out.

Mike holds a black belt in Songahm Taekwondo. He lives in Indianapolis with his wife and her three cats. ASHFALL is his first novel.

Find Mike:

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

Read More

Labels: apocalypse, ashfall, mike mullin, natural disaster, reviews, tanglewood press, volcano, yellow stone