Ashen Winter by Mike Mullin
ARC made available by the publisher,
Tanglewood Press - release date October 16, 2012
It’s June but
winter still has a firm grip on the weather. Sky-born ash from the
eruption of the supervolcano under Yellowstone blocks most of the
sunlight from heating the earth. As the winter continues, Alex and
his family along with Darla and the community of Warren continue to
work together and adjust to the changes in their lives. Darla rigs
up one machine after another to enable life to endure. Of course,
not all people are working together to survive…
Bandits try to
kidnap Alex’s sister and cousins and, in the struggle, the bandits
leave several weapons behind. One is the shotgun Alex’s parents
took with them when they went back to Iowa to find Alex which prompts
Alex and Darla to leave to go look for them.
What Alex and Darla
find in their search is even worse than they expected. Towns
barricaded against gangs who trade in guns, drugs, and human flesh;
refugee camps run by the infamous Black Lake military contractors who
look the other way when the gangs kidnap young women; and, in
between, families living hidden in their homes trying to avoid
disaster. Everywhere Alex and Darla turn it’s as if another layer
of humanity is stripped away though some still manage to carry their
dignity with them.
As the story
progresses, Alex (who needs rescuing several times himself) ends up
having to rescue Darla as well as his parents but in the process
frees Alyssa, a slave to one of the gangs, and her brother, Ben, a
high-functioning autistic military expert who is as handy to have
around as Darla.
In the end, the
climax of this dystopian novel will leave readers on the edge of
their seats waiting impatiently for the thrilling sequel in the
Ashfall series.
Submitted by Wendy Lamos, Teacher Librarian, West Fork CSD,
Sheffield and Rockwell, IA
I loved the first book in this trilogy, and I can't wait to read this one!
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