Supervolcano: Things Fall Apart (A Supervolcano Novel) Mass Market Paperback – December 2, 2014

Got the series for myself to be "entertained" during downtimes of the coronavirus work-from-home era; obviously several years past when they were published. This is more of a series review/statement of the series than this last book in said series. I have been reading Turtledove for 20+ years, I cannot remember if I started with Worldwar or How Few Remain, either way I was pretty hooked on alternate-history/what-ifs since then.In the end I feel this was the author's angsty "I don't like the current president" political statement tome - lots of pretty conservative if not libertarian undertones along with really strangely inserted (?) sections from the main ~7 characters like: "I don't mind gay people, they can do what they want but do they have to shove it in my face and have to be congratulated?" (wow!), this coming from a character that would best be described as a millennial seemed out of place but also topical when it came to what was going on in the "real world" around the time of presumed writing and publishing (assuming these were quickly published due to the numerous typos and misprints throughout. Plus the "pseudo-czar of Northwestern Maine" character who lost his bid for office (GOP) to a "slick haired lawyer type that stays in Washington"...continuous anti-marijuana messaging (but drink alcohol to your hearts content, sleep around with little consideration to health concerns) - really Turtledove just need to write a novella that let loose his political angst and stay focused on what I was hoping to be an exiting post-apocalyptic romp over three novels.Things I could never get over:- Really pretty darn racially charged description of the manager of the Ramen Noodle Factory- Why make up a fake town in the LA area? Their are dozens to chose from. I know Turtledove explains this to some extent in a note, but - just why?- Its cold, and getting colder. Do you know what snow looks like? Its cold too. I'm cold.- Most wooden performance award goes to the "protagonist" Lt./Capt. Colin Ferguson. OMG...literally an AI could spit out his lines if you selected "middle aged conservative non-union cop divorced from cheating mother of this three spawn".- Oldest of spawn nearly inexplicably ends up hanging out in north western Maine, barely clinging to existence, because one of his bandmates found a lover, so the rest of them "hung around" - REALLY? Only regret is lack of available pot. Get on a bike, ride down to Bangor, get on a plane and get home - maybe put your engineering degree to work?- Middle spawn, the millennial woman alluded to above, can't make a good decision if she tried and had such a terrible worldview I wanted to take a tranquilizer just to get through her inner monologue. Also, she does not like doing dishes, or cooking. Or much of anything except for in bed and destroying tech writers "prose". Terrible character development.- Youngest spawn acts like a trust-fund baby that never had to work for a thing in his life, really only in the series to babysit for the older Echo Boomers late-in-life spawn-age.- Most interesting character, a woman geologist working towards her PhD, essentially gets relegated to house-marm status after marriage to Lt/Capt. Excitement above and occasionally teaches at a local college but really no more input from her about the supervolcano situation after the thing blew its top (well, she did get 1-2 quick field trips back to look, otherwise another wasted character. We do get an interesting aside on how to use a slide rule, oddly enough, as taught by Lt. Capt. Excitement, that was an interesting 20+ minutes. /s- Pretends the US gov't would take 2-3 years to get legislation put together to deal with the crisis, as we have just seen with the coronavirus epidemic, when the gov't WANTS to act, it usually does...that was just more political angst again; even when parties we may not like are in power.- Apparently there was a "minor" nuclear weapons exchange in the mid-east, so "minor" that oil production dropped to near zero - no real follow-up on what this was and what happened next. But we do get to learn how close the nearest Chinese food location was to Spawn #1 in Guilford ME, (its in Dover-Foxcroft, apparently - but no one ever goes to try it, 9 mile walk away) and if interested, the Vicodin regimen of the two characters who were shot.- Another character (Spawn #2 ex-boyfriend, who apparently became good buddies with Lt./Capt. Excitement), gets his doctorate in ancient greek poetry (Apparently that's a thing), and his inner monologue is baffling to disgusting...he is always commenting how attractive the under-age or way-too-young co-eds are even when he seems to be with a more than willing partner who ?drove? ?flew? ?teleported? from LA to BFE Nebraska where he was to teach classics, and she was there just as a plot device to describe that she was cold (did I mention they are all cold?) and bored. "but there is something you can do when the lights are out and the only thing keeping you warm is being under the blankets together"...good gawd. Over and Over and Over.- Every character just seems driven by sex primarily, and complaining about lack of transportation (and did I mention, they are COLD!), lack of white bread, it is repetitive and tiresome.It had been a couple-few years since I read my last Turtledove trilogy/series and I had high hopes for this one since I like disaster/post-apocalyptic novels and some of his work in the past has been at least interesting and I realize he gets repetitive I presume in the unlikely event that someone picks up Book 3 and then reads Book 1 and skips Book 2 (which one could plausibly do here). Disappointed in the barely disguised chauvinism and the barely under the surface seething anger at the 2009-2017 presidency, hopefully he puts together a more thoughtful series in the future, plenty of fodder for him now with our current political and pandemic situations!Gave it 2 stars mainly as the subject matter was interesting, but be prepared to get fed up at times to put the kindle down for a day or two (or do as some described and skip through the "the cat is playing with cat toys" sections). Hopeful for a better series!

My husband really liked the book.

With this title I was hoping that Turtledove would finally address an all out collapse of society in the US as a result of the impact on climate and basic life because of the eruption. Sadly, he barely touched on this. The weather keeps getting colder, the power grid for the Great Lakes area and the Northeast collapses, and society stays generally peaceful. I figure by this point the thin veneer of society would be greatly strained.So the saga of the Fergusons continues. Vanessa gets screwed over by her Serbian boyfriend financially, Rob Ferguson and his band are still stuck in Guilford, Maine. Marshall sells a short story to Playboy, has an affair with a married woman and then gets dumped when he doesn't make any more big sales. Colin, the chief protagonist, turns down the police chief position and then proceeds to get wounded in a shootout and retires from the force.There's more, but you get the idea. Unlike the previous installment this one did not have a compelling subplot. One point that really disappointed me was when Kelly was at a geology convention in Chicago and the power went out. There was a chance for some really gritty drama, a major city falling apart in a deep freeze. What does happen? Not much, except Kelly can't get a flight out and has to come back to Los Angeles by train.And, really, how many times can one put into the same book "Maine North and West of the Interstate" or some variation thereof? I think I counted at least twenty.This is an OK read but here's hoping the next installment is more interesting. Possibly, also, the last?

Personal PreferenceHow do you judge a good book from a bad book? A good book is one that you lose track of reality and become enthralled with the story. Reviews are just personal opinions of the book not necessarily helpful when choosing a book. If you’ve read Turtledove before and like his writing, then you may like this book. That is if you already read the first two. The author is a master of providing the reader at a glimpse of an alternate history or in this case a “what if “ life in the U.S and world.Yes, I would agree for the average reader the story can get be drawn out with out much plot but I think you read a story like this one for the in between the lines of the what if through the eyes of characters living their daily lives. That is what I like about the book. No it is not action packed, filled with fluff and filler but a well researched thought out what if story of survival. Yes, three books could be condensed to two but all in all I rate it a 4, the first book a 4 and the second only a 2/3.

Turtledove's mo seems to be to think "What would happen if......a certain event in history, had happened differently? (Or hadn't happened at all?) In this series I first thought had departed from that. After reading this, the concluding book in the series, I no longer think that. He' s just asking, "What if the Yellowstone super volcano actually erupted?" (Future events instead of historical ones) It seems to me he did his research, and I LOVE his characters more than in any other Turtledove series. He perhaps deserves a 5 rating, but I'm picky and wanted to know more about the volcano' s effects on the rest of the world. Also' it seemed too convenient that the family members were placed across much of America, even though this was necessary to give an up-close-and-personal view from each of these places. No happy endings here, but it is realistic, compelling, enjoyable writing and fun to read.

Book One was dramatic, with Yellowstone blowing up. I got this book to find out how things go, but it is all left hanging. A slow decline, but will it collapse or recover? Maybe he has a dozen more books planned before we know.

not up to usual standard.

I enjoy his books.

Ok