This is the first novel by Harry Turtledove I've had the chance to read. It is not one of his alternate history ones, but I thought the title looked interesting so began with this. I do hope the others I have here on TBR mountain are better. I have enjoyed the social commentary sprinkled throughout the book so far.. but the kids of the male main character, while possibly accurate portrayals of those types, leave little to be interested in. Which brings me to Vanessa. I do not care for her (who could?!) but what happened to Pickles made me put the book down and I haven't yet returned. admitted it is a realistic portrayal of some of the actions of relief groups and etc towards people who have pets - but it is still not the right thing to do. She could have done something else. I will.. but I'm rather hoping she dies horribly right now.

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Gigantic eruption in Yellowstone destroys half the country. This book follows the lives of 6-7 people before, during, and shortly after the eruption. Obviously white male author shows his prejudices and political leanings during the story. ( )

I thought this novel sounded interesting and exciting. It felt written by rote. The exciting bits were bland and over too soon. The rest of it sort of fizzled out with little resolution. This novel could have been so much more than it was. Disappointing. ( )

I will admit right up front that I love a good disaster pr0n book, movie, TV show. It's sick, I know.

This wasn't such a bad book. In fact, the actual story is really good. What happens if the volcanos under Yellowstone blew? What happens if you're away from home and get stuck across the country? What happens if the city you lived in was buried under ash and you just got away in time only to land in a refugee camp? What if you're a single parent, just laid off from her job, trying to make ends meet in a post-eruption world? How do you pay for gas when it's $20 a gallon? What would you do when the electricity is infrequent at best?

How do you survive? Is it even worth it?

The only issue I actually have with the book (and book 2, which I'm reading now) is that there are very few sympathetic characters. And the ones you do like get little air time. You have Collin. He's a cop who's wife left him for a younger man citing their dead marriage as the reason for her infidelity (although she rarely ever sees it as infidelity). He meets Kelly who is a volcano/Yellowstone geologist expert. She's a 30-something grad student who at least has interests outside of herself. Collin has three grown children who act like pot-smoking know it all brats. Rob is in a band and is traveling the east coast when the eruption goes. By this point he's pretty much done with the pot and turns out to be interesting. The middle child, Vanessa, is exactly as Turtledove describes her in the book: paranoid, know it all. She's done it and done it better than anyone else but only whines because her life is just so hard. You'd feel horrible for her if she didn't come off as such a whiner from the get go. But it's hard to like someone who's own dad doesn't like. Finally there is Marshall. A slacker, quintessential stereotypical SoCal college student smoking pot his life away trying to stay in college forever so he doesn't have to grow up. He's not bad but the laziness until he finds a bit of his niche gets to be annoying.

And that's why I gave this book 3-stars. The characters just aren't redeeming enough. I mean, I like that all of them are flawed human beings. There's no false happy shiny people here. They're human. Unfortunately, most of the characters are just annoying. I guess, though, in some sick fashion I am kind of okay for the situations that Vanessa finds herself in because she's the one who put herself there. Even though the world is definitely out to get her (by her own admission, not necessarily reality), I'm okay that she's really struggling. I think that is the saving grace of the characters. They either find their way or they keep struggling the way they always have.

I do wish there would be more focus on Kelly and Rob though. To me they're the ones who have the most interesting lives.

As for the writing style, it gets a bit tedious. This is the only book I've read by Turtledove so if I'm wrong about the style don't shoot me. The style is choppy. Thoughts are cut off mid-sentence, mid-thought. There is a lot of backtracking. Multiple characters will give the same information. And it's not necessarily that character's opinion of the information, just giving the same information as the previous character. Each chapter has a couple of paragraphs in which all the characters give the exact same information if not almost the exact same wording. What is the purpose here?

I'm off to book 2. I'm glad the book is popular amongst my library's patrons. I need a bit of time between books because of the heavy, pessimistic tone of the books. It would be hard to be optimistic if the sun rarely shone and life had taken a century jump backwards all of a sudden. But the heaviness of the book can be overwhelming at times.

Overall, a good read. ( )

Rather disappointing. A volcano basically destroys the U. S. and some people pretend that nothing happened and others head north into the arctic winter. ( )