Mullin, Mike
Entry updated 24 November 2025. Tagged: Author.
(? - ) US author whose major work is the Ashfall trilogy comprising his first novel Ashfall (2011), Ashen Winter (2012), and Sunrise (2014), together with the related novella Darla's Story (2013 chap), all set in the aftermath of Disaster: an eruption of the Yellowstone supervolcano. Although published as a trilogy, the books tell a single, continuous story; they are nominally Young Adult fiction, but deal with deep questions of morality and of growing up into a sexual maturity, and are perhaps best considered as a thoughtful and imaginative coming-of age-story as circumstances force the teenage protagonists into learning very quickly how to cope with the life-threatening challenges that the catastrophe forces on them.
The effects of the Yellowstone eruption are the common thread that binds all the story incidents together. Earthquakes and the initial huge falls of volcanic ash lead to an ongoing and seemingly never-ending winter (see Climate Change). The struggles of the survivors to find sufficient food and water to allow them to keep on living in the societal collapse that results from these terrible conditions are vividly and memorably described.
Surface Tension (2018) is a nonfantastic standalone novel about domestic terrorism, whose protagonist is afflicted with Amnesia. [ARo/DRL]
Mike Mullin
born
works
series
Ashfall
- Ashfall (Terre Haute, Indiana: Tanglewood Publishing, 2011) [Ashfall: hb/]
- Ashen Winter (Terre Haute, Indiana: Tanglewood Publishing, 2012) [Ashfall: hb/]
- Darla's Story (place not given: for the author, 2013) [chap: Ashfall: pb/]
- Sunrise (Terre Haute, Indiana: Tanglewood Publishing, 2014) [Ashfall: hb/]
individual titles
- Surface Tension (Indianapolis, Indiana: Tanglewood Publishing, 2018) [hb/]
links
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