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3.25 AVERAGE
3.25 AVERAGE
I read this book because someone on here said it was like an movie with volcanoes.
Yup, it was. A very b rated volcano movie. Think dante's peak but not as good.
More like volcano with Tommy Lee Jones.
The book was awesome until about page 200 something and then it was like the author just got tired and wanted to end the story. It needs another 100 pages and some lava. I kept waiting for the lava or the explosion or something. I mean it's a SUPERVOLCANO. For the love of god, give me some action about its explosion..but nope no action or explosions. Why? Because they were all underground in a bunker and the explosion was just glossed over.
Very disappointed.
And now I will not be spending a long relaxing weekend anywhere near Yellowstone. Nope, this book did me in.
Review 1: Must get over anxiety about the end of the world via a supervolcano.
Review to come.
Yup, it was. A very b rated volcano movie. Think dante's peak but not as good.
More like volcano with Tommy Lee Jones.
The book was awesome until about page 200 something and then it was like the author just got tired and wanted to end the story. It needs another 100 pages and some lava. I kept waiting for the lava or the explosion or something. I mean it's a SUPERVOLCANO. For the love of god, give me some action about its explosion..but nope no action or explosions. Why? Because they were all underground in a bunker and the explosion was just glossed over.
Very disappointed.
And now I will not be spending a long relaxing weekend anywhere near Yellowstone. Nope, this book did me in.
Review 1: Must get over anxiety about the end of the world via a supervolcano.
Review to come.
Me to me, every time I re-read this book, reawakening the never dormant volcano that is my fear of Yellowstone:
Moves along nicely with a slightly different plot from the usual volcano-doom, but it suffers a little from appearing more like a novelization of a TV movie than an original novel. It's written in the present tense, which strengthens this impression, as do the later interviews interspersed like TV clips, but a few inconsistencies (people who don't know what happened when they just watched it, for instance, or forget what they just bought) distracted me from the whole "they're all going to die" part. And yes, there was that really annoying character everyone just wants to die, and people just getting it on, and some typical political rhetoric.
In short, I think this would be a great Asylum movie. It just didn't work for me in book form. (I'll hope to watch it later though!)
Disclaimer: I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
In short, I think this would be a great Asylum movie. It just didn't work for me in book form. (I'll hope to watch it later though!)
Disclaimer: I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I read this book because someone on here said it was like an movie with volcanoes.
Yup, it was. A very b rated volcano movie. Think dante's peak but not as good.
More like volcano with Tommy Lee Jones.
The book was awesome until about page 200 something and then it was like the author just got tired and wanted to end the story. It needs another 100 pages and some lava. I kept waiting for the lava or the explosion or something. I mean it's a SUPERVOLCANO. For the love of god, give me some action about its explosion..but nope no action or explosions. Why? Because they were all underground in a bunker and the explosion was just glossed over.
Very disappointed.
And now I will not be spending a long relaxing weekend anywhere near Yellowstone. Nope, this book did me in.
Review 1: Must get over anxiety about the end of the world via a supervolcano.
Review to come.
Yup, it was. A very b rated volcano movie. Think dante's peak but not as good.
More like volcano with Tommy Lee Jones.
The book was awesome until about page 200 something and then it was like the author just got tired and wanted to end the story. It needs another 100 pages and some lava. I kept waiting for the lava or the explosion or something. I mean it's a SUPERVOLCANO. For the love of god, give me some action about its explosion..but nope no action or explosions. Why? Because they were all underground in a bunker and the explosion was just glossed over.
Very disappointed.
And now I will not be spending a long relaxing weekend anywhere near Yellowstone. Nope, this book did me in.
Review 1: Must get over anxiety about the end of the world via a supervolcano.
Review to come.
Wow! This book was right up my alley! I love disaster books and disaster movies and this one definitely delivered. It’s about the Yellowstone caldera eruption and the scenarios are quite frightening! I’ve read a lot of disaster books and there are a lot, especially on kindle unlimited but this was actually a professionally written book that was coherent and the characters were well thought out and multidimensional. It was fast paced and like a movie, heck I’d love to see this book turned into a movie! Best read I’ve had this year!
Received via Pinnacle and NetGalley in exchange for an completely unbiased review.
Also posted on Silk & Serif
Yellowstone National Park is the home of beautiful landscapes, hot springs, idyllic camp grounds and one of the world’s “super volcanoes”. Scientists estimate it has been approximately 640,000 years since the last time the super volcano's caldera erupted. Recently, the ground beneath Yellowstone has been steadily heating up and rising - classic signs of an impending eruption.
When researchers tasked with observing and recording changes in the Yellowstone volcano’s rate of elevation and rising underground temperature discover that the volcano appears to have magma rapidly rising to the surface, chief scientist Tucker Mayfield recommends the evacuation of Yellowstone National Park. Although Park Superintendent Ralph Barlow calls for the evacuation of the park as soon as possible, no one expects the caldera to erupt within hours.
Cataclysm is a novel is plenty of implausible escape scenes – including hiding underground from flowing lava which, if you understand the volcanic eruption of Pompeii, you would realize is completely impossible and everyone would have been instantly cooked. Regardless of obvious “flaws; if the reader is willing to suspend belief they will find Cataclysm a fun and compelling read. Washburn’s writing style is reminiscent of Clive Cussler’s writing style with plenty of action, impractical heroic moments and the typical “hero” trope in Mayfield.
Finally, the newspaper snippets and interviews included in the novel was a fantastic addition. The eye witness interviews conducted in refugee camps were fantastic methods to fill in the gaps during and after the Yellowstone eruptions. Unlike The Three by Lotz, the interviews and clippings added a human element to the novel rather than an irritating serialization of events and also allowed for a break between chapters which was refreshing.
The biggest problem with this novel was by far the rushed ending. I found this more irritating that some of the outlandish action scenes. The author favored a large leap in time of a year (or two?) to briefly revisit the main characters and show how North America has fared once the eruption had run it's course. Unfortunately, I felt like the author ran out of ideas or time and hastily threw together an ending just to finish the book. Still a good read, but the ending wasn’t as satisfying as it could have been.
I would recommend this novel to fans of disaster novels, people who enjoy an escapist read with action right out of the gate, novels without a great deal of pre-story and simplistic language. Reader beware: although there is some science contained in the novel (eg: what a caldera is, super volcano definitions and the basic mechanics of an eruption), there is a fair amount of suspect circumstances and situations that require some flexibility in belief.
Also posted on Silk & Serif
Yellowstone National Park is the home of beautiful landscapes, hot springs, idyllic camp grounds and one of the world’s “super volcanoes”. Scientists estimate it has been approximately 640,000 years since the last time the super volcano's caldera erupted. Recently, the ground beneath Yellowstone has been steadily heating up and rising - classic signs of an impending eruption.
When researchers tasked with observing and recording changes in the Yellowstone volcano’s rate of elevation and rising underground temperature discover that the volcano appears to have magma rapidly rising to the surface, chief scientist Tucker Mayfield recommends the evacuation of Yellowstone National Park. Although Park Superintendent Ralph Barlow calls for the evacuation of the park as soon as possible, no one expects the caldera to erupt within hours.
All signs point to an upcoming eruption and the date of eruption could be in days or weeks. Our story follows chief scientist Tucker Mayfield and his band of survivors in their race to safety before disaster strikes.
Cataclysm is a novel is plenty of implausible escape scenes – including hiding underground from flowing lava which, if you understand the volcanic eruption of Pompeii, you would realize is completely impossible and everyone would have been instantly cooked. Regardless of obvious “flaws; if the reader is willing to suspend belief they will find Cataclysm a fun and compelling read. Washburn’s writing style is reminiscent of Clive Cussler’s writing style with plenty of action, impractical heroic moments and the typical “hero” trope in Mayfield.
Cataclysm is a fun, easy beach read with a steady stream of action that keep readers reading.
Finally, the newspaper snippets and interviews included in the novel was a fantastic addition. The eye witness interviews conducted in refugee camps were fantastic methods to fill in the gaps during and after the Yellowstone eruptions. Unlike The Three by Lotz, the interviews and clippings added a human element to the novel rather than an irritating serialization of events and also allowed for a break between chapters which was refreshing.
The biggest problem with this novel was by far the rushed ending. I found this more irritating that some of the outlandish action scenes. The author favored a large leap in time of a year (or two?) to briefly revisit the main characters and show how North America has fared once the eruption had run it's course. Unfortunately, I felt like the author ran out of ideas or time and hastily threw together an ending just to finish the book. Still a good read, but the ending wasn’t as satisfying as it could have been.
I would recommend this novel to fans of disaster novels, people who enjoy an escapist read with action right out of the gate, novels without a great deal of pre-story and simplistic language. Reader beware: although there is some science contained in the novel (eg: what a caldera is, super volcano definitions and the basic mechanics of an eruption), there is a fair amount of suspect circumstances and situations that require some flexibility in belief.