Reviewed by Alex Ndirangu for Readers' Favorite

Monty Nereim's Yucca Mountain Exodus is a well-written sci-fi tale about survival on a planet ravaged by the inevitable. A four-mile-radius asteroid hit the planet, unleashing shock waves that jolted tectonic plates upward and downward, causing earthquakes, tsunamis, catastrophic volcanic eruptions, and extreme weather patterns. A sophisticated bunker a few thousand feet beneath the Yucca mountain has kept several hundred people safe from the disaster unfolding on the surface. It's been a long time since the tragedy, and the people yearn to be free of their underground confinement. However, the departure gates are impassable since a lake has formed outside, and opening the gates would flood the sanctuary. After fifteen years, nine volunteers reach the mountain's summit via a perilous escape hole. Their mission is to seek assistance from other sanctuaries, assistance that will allow their families to escape the depths of the mountain. However, their trip will be filled with challenges, tribulations, and even devastating revelations as their chances of finding any other human species get dimmer with each step they take. Will their journey be fruitful? How can they cope with the calamities that may still be happening on the surface, given their lack of experience after spending so many years underground?

I truly liked Monty Nereim's writing style. He had extremely distinct ideas that were easy to comprehend. His writing conveyed aspects of his personality to me. He comes out as an author with a lively imagination, evidenced in his creativity; he is not afraid to express it! Because of this, he draws reader empathy toward the characters' circumstances. I could feel the cool desert air causing goosebumps to appear on my skin as I mentally recreated the desert environment. The vivid descriptions of these settings were extremely important to the credibility of this book. Another plus was the cast of believable, well-written characters. The dialogue between and among the many characters gave the narrative life and placed the events in their immediate contexts. Monty foregrounded and predicted events through these talks without disrupting the flow of the story. I comprehensively understood each scene and the behaviors that distinguished them. I appreciated Monty's decision to add a song in this book to which I couldn't help but sing along. This inter-textual element elevated simple language into the realm of poetry. There was nothing I didn't enjoy about Yucca Mountain Exodus. I believe it provides insight into the survival instinct that lives within all of us.