Discovered Outland through Kev Quirk's review. I enjoy reading his blog.
Think of any disaster block bluster. You are introduced to the main protagonists, usually a group of individual more or less loosely connected to one another. If they are not, they will. Some of them have quirky traits to lighten the mood. Some of them are the serious ones. Their backgrounds are established. The, you're given the context for the disaster - the event that will inevitably spiral out of control. If supported by the scientific explanation the better. Because things to finish our world must have good standing, no? To make the point of the disaster movie - the protagonists survive on their own, by helping others, or joining forces with a group of people whose identities are not really important. Along the way they encounter number of challenges, because end of the world is not a walk in the park. After all the hardships there's nevertheless the hope... The end.
Now it might sound like I didn't enjoy Outland, but that's far from the truth. It's a real page-turner, and I finished it in just two reading sessions. It's highly addictive.
The world is send into a downward spiral by eruption of the Yellowstone super-volcano. By sheer coincidence, our group of protagonist discovers a way how to build inter-dimensional portal(s) just in time before it happens. After a few unsuccessful attempts they find one of the parallel universes where Yellowstone exploded a long time ago, and as a result, humans never evolved there - they call the place Outland and help the group of people to escape there.
Rating: ★★★☆☆ ?