Supervolcano

Eruption

By: Harry Turtledove

Narrated by: Jim Frangione

A supervolcanic eruption in Yellowstone Park sends lava and mud flowing toward populated areas, and clouds of ash drifting across the country. The fallout destroys crops and livestock, clogs machinery, and makes cities uninhabitable. Those who survive find themselves caught in an apocalyptic catastrophe in which humanity has no choice but to rise from the ashes and recreate the world.

©2011 Harry Turtledove (P)2011 Recorded Books, LLC

Say Goodbye to Yellowstone

Until I discovered this book was part of a series, my initial rating would have been much lower.

The story was so disjointed; The family that Is no more. Scenes jumping from character to character left me frustrated and unsatisfied. The hardest thing for me was that I really dislike all the characters except Collin and Kelly.

The story ends abruptly with no real resolution. Now that I know this is the first book in a trilogy, I think the things that bothered me will come together and make sense eventually. I will try book 2.

okay Story performed well

The reading was good, but the story was very slow in the beginning and towards the end as well. Would have thought more details on the eruption itself, based on the amount of time it went into details of each character. Story wasn't anything grand either. Probably wouldn't recommend this one to others.

Almost too much character development

This is really the story of a handful of people while they experience the onset and consequences of the volcano eruption. Typically, I would love the character development as it's a mile away from the "fight scene - dialogue - fight scene" standard trope of the typical apocalyptic fiction tale. However, this time, I actually found myself hitting the forward button repeatedly because it was dragging. He writes extremely well, especially within this particular genre but it feels like it needed some paring down.

Jim Frangione is wonderful. The narration was perfect.

Believable story

The story is realistic and entertaining, but also a glimpse of the world we hope to never know. The narration is excellent! Perfect way to pass the time in my bus.

The Real Turtledove is Back

To be fair, most reviewers have not liked this book much. I did. Turtledove's metier is character development, involving relatively ordinary (and not always even likeable) people trying to live ordinary lives against the background of bizarre events. The events themselves are rarely viewed in broad. Instead, we get short glimpses from many angles, reflected from shards of a fragmented mirror, as these events affect individual lives. In Supervolcano, Turtledove returns to this technique in a setting where, in its initial stages, humans are essentially powerless to do anything other than try to cling onto the remnants of normal life. Obviously, this isn't going to work, any more than it did in Niven/Pournelle's Lucifer's Hammer or Stirling's Dies the Light. But unlike the last named books, Supervolcano shows society crumbling in slow motion -- a great setting for Turtledove's brand of character novel.

I doubt this series will be as good as Turtledove's enormous set of CSA stories. Frankly, nothing else ever will be, from Turtledove or from anyone else. But this is a very promising start.

Kind of a dull suspense book

story line was weak, the description of what a volcano is was poor mostly just about personal adventures during an eruption that left much to be desired in completion of what was and finally happened to all of the main charracters esplecialy the killer that the cops was looking that was a real let down no ending no real investigation but I listened to it to the end and as a book that I could have done without it wasn't as bad as some that I've listened thru

Good performance. Poorly written

This is a pretty good audiobook on the performance side. But there is no way Turtledove actually wrote this. This appears to to have been written by an inferior author using the Turtledove name.

Not credit worthy, read worthy, or just worthy.

Would you try another book from Harry Turtledove and/or Jim Frangione?

When you download a book entitled

Would you ever listen to anything by Harry Turtledove again?

Never Nada

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

More energy, but reading this would be a challenge for any narrator...even Frank Muller in his prime.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Anything negative you can think of

Any additional comments?

Really, really bad book.

Not worth your time or money

I enjoy reading books about catastrophic events. This particular story was less about a Supervolcano and more about the breakup of a marriage, the miscreant kids of two screwed up parents, an affair and finally a middle-aged unwed idiot character’s pregnancy. Didn’t finish. I tried twice, but just couldn’t do it. Really dumb book!

"This is not the story you are looking for."

You know it's bad when you slog through all but the last hour where you just give up. This is not, not, not about a super volcano. It is about some people you have no reason to care much about. It is not about how the volcano explodes and impacts them. It is about people mulling over their boring lives and relationships. The volcano is no more than a garrulous bus driver who had baked beans for lunch. A maddening waste of time and a credit, and just soooo not interesting that I gave it up with only an hour left to go.