Ashfall, by Mike Mullin

[rachelmanija]

A mediocre YA novel about the eruption of the supervolcano at Yellowstone which ticks off all the most clichéd tropes of the apocalypse novel as if working from a list: immediate formation of unashamed cannibal rape gangs, check; instant descent into suspicion and savagery by most people even if they’re not cannibal rapists, check; hero’s search

Comments

[marzipan_pig]

It does seem suspicious that the cannibal rape gangs form so quickly after a disaster such as this - does people's latent PTSD come out fast and they all deal with it the exact same way? I mean, really, most people AREN'T cannibal rapists, and in normal natural disasters really it's 'looting' first and then after a while maybe people threaten each other with guns based on pre-existing social tensions, and unfortunately people get raped all the time.

But cannibalism? Really?

[rachelmanija]

And not just cannibalism, but "Woo-hoo! Cannibalism yay!"

I could see people whose last food has run out deciding to eat the bodies of the already-dead, in desperation. That sort of thing has a long history. But forming into gangs to murder people specifically so they can gleefully roast them in public, one week post-apocalypse? I find that highly unlikely.

[nancylebov]

IIRC, in Niven and Pournell's Lucifer's Hammer, there are cannibal gangs, but the cannibalism is at least partly to trap people in the gangs. "Now you've done something so horrifying that you can never rejoin the rest of the human race."

[copperwise]

A week? Given people in actual disasters reluctance to eat the already dead even to survive, I find that incredibly unbelievable. Like, beyond my willing suspension of disbelief level of unbelievable. Like, hell to the no unbelievable.

[buymeaclue]

a generic teenager with a black belt in taekwondo

Man, I wasted a lot of time when I was a teen.

[rachelmanija]

I evilly thought, "McDojo!" when I hit that part. Lots of teenagers have black belts in tae kwon do; their actual skills vary widely.

[telophase]

I did like that he had to consciously remember the difference between sparring and fighting for your life, and deal with the fact that his reflexes were geared towards not hurting his opponent.

Although I've heard that if you're in a fight and down on the ground one of the things you can do is tap out and see if your opponent's reflexes take over and they automatically let you up. No idea if it works or not.

[rachelmanija]

I have always suspected that, should I get in a fight in real life, the odds of my opponent having ever formally trained are probably quite low. However, should I get a chance... well, okay, I'd probably be doing something else with my free hand, like eye-gouging. But it's an interesting idea.

[veejane]

Now see, I read about this novel and I think, I've seen this movie! Only without any cannibal rape gangs or teen angst (or even any taekwondo). It was a Discovery Channel movie about what would happen if the caldera under Yellowstone weer to open p like a zipper, and the answer was: a whole bunch of geologists would die, and then a whole bunch of other people (mostly in the plains and midwest) would die more slowly, as the ash poisoned the water, killed the crops, smooshed the roofs, and did other things. The upshot of the movie was, FEMA admitted it could not handle the size of such a disaster, and coined a catchy slogan ("walk to life") to make the afflicted rescue themselves. Not intentionally in a GWB/Katrina way, although now I can't remember when the movie was made. Anyway, the sloganeering was portrayed as the best of a bad situation rather than, like, a darkly hilarious inappropriate response, because even FEMA in its competent years is not designed to handle the entire Yellowstone caldera unzipping

[rachelmanija]

I bet there was less peeing, too.

[veejane]

Honestly, though, isn't the whole point of apocalypse scenarios that the world becomes your bathroom? Law and order is in breakdown! Cannibal rape gangs! You can pee wherever you want to.

[rachelmanija]

Yeah, but you still need to select the spot where you most want to go. ;) Actually, the pee scenes are mostly early on when there are still bathrooms/trenches/portapotties, and under circumstances where "wherever you are" isn't a great option (imprisoned, on sofa recovering from axe wound.)

I think my favorite was when Alex thinks something like, "I can't be dangerously dehydrated, because I still have to pee!"

[icecreamempress]

As veejane suggests, in a world populated by insta-cannibals, prudery about urination seems oddly out of place.

Wouldn't people eat the canned food out of the supermarkets first? I mean, it should take more than a week for that to run out in most locales.

[rachelmanija]

It's not really prudery so much as that every time Alex pees, we get to experience him feeling the urge and selecting a peeing zone. Hey, even dogs pick a good spot!

[asakiyume]

Doing anything over and over again in a story makes for boredom, but experiencing the protag's bladder filling up and then experiencing the delight of finding a good spot to pee, over and over again? HILARIOUS.

[rachelmanija]

The only other example I can think of is Flora in Flora's Dare by Ysabeau Wilce, who spends tons of time desperately searching for a bathroom. But she lives in a quite civilized society and it's played for comedy.

[rachelmanija]

Yep! http://rachelmanija.livejournal.com/866416.html