Chilling tales of desperation, survival, and hope, in the aftermath of a volcanic eruption. I couldn't put it down. ( )

An anthology of stories set after the explosion of the Yellowstone supervolcano. I like the set-up, I like the deliberate tribute to the collections of [a:Ray Bradbury|1630|Ray Bradbury|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1361491094p2/1630.jpg], and the effort to seek out the emotionally resonant moments for people at the end of the world, and after.

But as a collection there is a negative synergy. The different characters don't seem all that different, they rather become a bland stew of white middle Americans (even the Mexican characters). The women feel secondary to the men. And the rape theme: enough already! I'm sick unto screaming of the roving bands of rapists who suddenly appear after a disaster in fiction. And while I understand the thematic point of the story with the pregnancy, the impractical considerations rather over weigh the theme (a third trimester abortion is really high risk in the conditions given, as is labor and delivery; it is FAR too late for these two characters to be having this conversation, by oh, about nine months).

"One Last Dinner Party" is my favorite, and the strongest for evoking that Bradbury melancholy. I like old married couples, I like the tone and the content.

Future writing from all the contributors is likely to be even more engaging, and I look forward to seeing what else they do. Personally, I'd like to see a more conscious effort to expand the diversity of the author pool in anthologies, if for no other reason than to keep the individual strengths from being watered down by repetions.

Review copy

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A Land of Ash is a collection of stories surrounding the eruption of the Yellowstone Caldera. While the writing was good, I never felt connected to any of the characters. Additionally, there are only so many people that one can kill with a cloud of ash before I start skimming just to finish the book. A good idea, good writing, but it just didn't come together for me. ( )

It's an interesting topic to choose for a series of short stories. Some were better than others, and it must be quite difficult to come up with different angles on what would basically be a catastrophic event.

All the authors are men, and I felt the lack of a female perspective. There were also a few typos in the edition I read: garage-sailing for garage-saling (though not sure that's a word, either!) and feint for faint, for example.

Worth a read for the stories that held out some hope for the human race and for the chance to wonder how it would affect you if the Yellowstone caldera did go up. ( )