Review: Flood by Stephen Baxter

Next year. Sea levels begin to rise. The change is far more rapid than any climate change predictions; metres a year. Within two years London, only 15 metres above the sea, is drowned. New York follows, the Pope gives his last address from the Vatican, Mecca disappears beneath the waves. Where is all the water coming from? Scientists estimate that the earth was formed with seas 30 times in volume their current levels. Most of that water was burnt off by the sun but some was locked in the earth's mantle.

The world is drowning. The biblical flood has returned. And the rate of increase is building all the time. Mankind is on the run, heading for high ground. Before 50 years have passed there will be nowhere left to run.

When I first started reading this book I wasn’t sold on it. The book started too slow, but soon enough the storyline picked up. I enjoyed the premise of the book of the world slowly drowning from floods, tsunamis, etc. What I loved about the book was the action sequences, and the relationships of the hostages and how they kept in contact throughout the years.

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Review: Empty by Suzanne Weyn

Empty by Suzanne Weyn
Series: N/A
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Source: Bought
ISBN: 9780545328821
Release Date: October 1, 2010
Pages: 159

A dystopic look at what happens to one American town when all the fossil fuels run out... It's the near future - the very near future - and the fossil fuels are running out. No gas. No oil. Which means no driving. No heat. Supermarkets are empty. Malls have shut down. Life has just become more local than we ever knew it could be. Nobody expected the end to come this fast. And in the small town of Spring Valley, decisions that once seemed easy are quickly becoming matters of life and death. There is hope - there has to be hope - just there are also sacrifices that need to be made, and a whole society that needs to be rethought.

This book had a lot of potential. I'm a huge fan of disaster and dystopian novels. I really enjoyed the premise of the book, where the world's oil is depleting. Supermarkets are unable to get their food deliveries, oil prices sky rocket, etc. However, this book just did not live up to its potential.

The book centres around Gwen Jones, a teenage girl who only has her older brother left. They don't necessarily get along, but he is all the family she has left.

Overall, I was disappointed with the book. I felt that it focused too much on juvenile love triangles and not enough on the plot. I didn't feel that the book was a realistic take on the situation. The novel ended up glossing over the negatives, and it didn't seem like a plausible disaster novel. When the world is going to shit I would think that there would be more panic and hysteria.

The ending wrapped everything up a little too neatly. I love a good happily ever after, but as this was a fairly short novel and not a series, it seemed too tidy. If the world's oil were too suddenly stop I don't believe everything will go from slight uncomfort to oh look what I found a perfect solution for the world just sitting here! One of the only realistic scenarios in the novel was the fighting between the countries that had any amount of oil left.

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Review: The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer

The Dead and The Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer
Series: Last Survivors #2
Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers
Source: Bought
ISBN: 9780547422268
Release Date: June 1, 2008


Susan Beth Pfeffer’s Life as We Knew It enthralled and devastated readers with its brutal but hopeful look at an apocalyptic event--an asteroid hitting the moon, setting off a tailspin of horrific climate changes. Now this harrowing companion novel examines the same events as they unfold in New York City, revealed through the eyes of seventeen-year-old Puerto Rican Alex Morales. When Alex's parents disappear in the aftermath of tidal waves, he must care for his two younger sisters, even as Manhattan becomes a deadly wasteland, and food and aid dwindle.

With haunting themes of family, faith, personal change, and courage, this powerful new novel explores how a young man takes on unimaginable responsibilities.

The Dead and the Gone centres around Alex Morales. A Puerto Rican boy who goes to a Catholic school. This is the second book in The Last Survivors series, where an asteroid bumps the moon a little closer to the earth causing severe changes to tides, volcanic eruptions, etc.

I found a lot of what happened in this book was repetitive of the first book and Alex's voice was very interchangeable to the main character in the first novel, but I did enjoy Miranda's character in the first novel more. She just seemed stronger where Alex's character came across as flat and boring. And when he wasn't boring his reactions were completely unrealistic. After someone tries to pimp out your sister you DON'T shake his hand and say "no hard feelings!"

One of the stronger characters in the novel was his youngest sister, Julie. At the start she is nothing more than a whiny brat who fusses if she didn't get her own way. As the novel continues, even though she is only 12, she must push her childhood aside and help her brother survive.

The author does try to show that Alex must suffer and scavenge, but they seem to have a lack of resourcefulness, and I'm not sure they would have actually survived in a real disaster.

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Review: Ashfall by Mike Mullin

Ashfall by Mike Mullin
Series: Ashfall #1
Publisher: Tanglewood Press
Source: Bought
ISBN: 9781933718552
Release Date: September 27, 2011
Pages: 466

Many visitors to Yellowstone National Park don’t realize that the boiling hot springs and spraying geysers are caused by an underlying supervolcano, so large that the caldera can only be seen by plane or satellite. And by some scientific measurements, it could be overdue for an eruption.

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.

Ashfall is about a teenage boy who is home alone for a weekend when a supervolcano erupts in Yellowstone Park and sends most the United States into chaos. He then makes the decision to go out on his own to find his family. While only a two hour car ride away becomes a months long journey of scavenging food, finding shelter, and surviving the fallout of the volcano eruption.

I mostly enjoyed this novel because of the dark grim feel throughout the novel and I do love a good disaster novel. The first bit of the book was quite fast paced, but as Alex begins his journey to Illinois the pace slows down.

I liked that everything didn't just fall neatly into place at the end of the novel. I felt it was quite realistic and showed how society could react to such an event. You might have people out for themselves, but there will be those ones who will help those in need.

The characters were well written. Alex changes so much throughout the novel, and by the end of the novel he is truly an adult. Darla and Alex seem very well suited and complement each other. I enjoyed how they didn't trust each other, especially given the circumstances, but learned to rely on each other, which eventually developed into a relationship.

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