Ashfall #2 Ashen Winter

Things are taking a turn for the worst in this post apocalyptic world....another well written book. Presenting Ashfall #2 Ashen Winter by Mike Mullin.

Here is the summary of the book:

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.

Set in the post volcanic eruption world, things are much worse now than they were in book 1. After this bitter Ashfall comes an even bitter winter. A frost bitten winter. A winter that we at present have to encounter. This deadly winter is what we find our characters Alex, Darla and their family and the other resident of the world in. And the worst is yet to come.

Beginning roughly half a year after the events in Ashfall. Alex and Darla are still at his Uncle Paul's farm and this Ashen Winter is not an easy way of life. But this all goes downhill when bandits attack and Uncle Paul informs them that one shotgun that they carried belonged to his father. So without much further ado they set out in search of his parents but trekking after bandit in that frost bitten winter in search of his parents is definitely not easy.... If only things were easy....

An obviously amazing follow up to Ashfall. Ashen Winter takes the danger level up another few notches. Just when you think that Alex and Darla are now safe in with at his Uncle's farm. A plethora of obstacles get thrown at Alex and Darla much more dangerous than the first. Just as action packed as the first.... the author definitely does not disappoint.

There is one thing that I appreciate about Alex and that is determination and stubborn persona. He never  once abandons his quest even if there is no hope of it coming to fruition. He is one character who is really above all else. Its his loyalty, faithfulness and determination that gives him strength and a pleasure to read about. Darla on the other hand was someone I never liked not even in the first book. A hardened girl of this dystopic world. There are also a great many new character introduced in this book who help these two and even heighten their problems too. But Ashfall series on the whole in a great focus on how human nature deteorates in worse conditions .... when surviving by any means (both good and bad) becomes much more important to them.

As far as it is considered I loved it. The dystopic world. The survival instinct. The waning humanity. The obvious hardship on Alex and Darla's part in their determination to find his parents. The obstacles and the dangers. 

I had one heck of a time reading this. Mike Mullin's penmanship is an amazing an ever. Sometimes too graphic making me skip a few of those scenes. A gripping plot. I loathe to think what horrors will be spewed on is in the next one.

"Mike Mullin produces another worthy of recognition - An excellent view into the minds of the people and changes one goes through, be it for the better or for the worst when their survival is on the line"

Genre :      Young Adult, Dystopia, Post Apocalyptic


Publisher: Tanglewood Press


My Copy:  Publisher and Netgalley


Rate:              5/5 (It was Amazing)